EU's Lamy To Lobby For European PCS
Standard In Brazil
Dow Jones Newswires
BRASILIA -- European Union trade negotiator Pascal Lamy will try to
convince Brazilian authorities later Thursday that Latin America's largest
economy should pick a certain frequency for new mobile communication
service licenses that will open a $10 billion market for European equipment
manufacturers - and not U.S. ones.
Lamy, who's scheduled to meet with Brazilian Communications Minister
Joao Pimenta da Veiga at 1900 GMT, will make it clear that "not for political
reasons, but for technical" ones, Brazil should opt for the 1.8 megahertz
frequency to assign to the new Personal Communications Services
operators.
"This a consumer technical decision that takes into account two criteria: the
technical value of the standard, and how widespread it is," Lamy said at a
breakfast with members of the media Thursday.
"The conclusion is obvious: Our system is better."
Brazilian communications regulator Anatel is expected to auction the PCS
licenses in September, and unveil which frequency will be used in coming
weeks.
U.S. Trade Secretary William Daley headed a mission to Brazil in
mid-February, and also addressed the PCS frequency issue with Pimenta da
Veiga during his visit.
U.S.-based manufacturers are pushing for the 1.9 MHz frequency that
would work with Time Division Multiple Access technology, or TDMA, and
Code Division Multiple Access technology, or CDMA.
Lamy made a point of criticizing the U.S.'s lobbying for the 1.9 MHz
frequency, saying "we do not proceed the American way."
"I'm not coming with 100 people and untwisting ideas," he said.
Lamy also argued that the International Telecommunications Union picked
the 1.8 MHz frequency as a standard, which would allow the introduction of
Global System for Mobile communications technology, or GSM, in Brazil.
PCS allows operators to provide communications services such as telephony,
but also other data-intensive services such as Internet navigation data
transmission.
-By Adriana Arai; Dow Jones Newswires; 55-61 9965-6883;
adriana.arai@dowjones.com |
