Vesper undecided on mobile predicament - Brazil
bnamericas.com
Thursday, April 10, 2003 17:02 (GMT-0400) Brazilian competitive local exchange carrier Vesper is undecided on how to proceed with its plans to enter the mobile segment, the Valor Online news service quoted CEO Marco Aurelio Rodrigues as saying Thursday.
Vesper faces a dire situation after being told by local regulator Anatel on Wednesday that it cannot use its 1900MHz fixed wireless network to offer full-fledged mobile operations. The operator can contest the decision one last time before it is made irreversible.
Last November Vesper spent US$84.4mn on three mobile licenses tied to the 1800MHz band. The company assumed Anatel's resolution 314, published two months prior to the PCS license auction, would allow it to use the licenses on its CDMA 1900MHz network as a "secondary" operation on top of fixed wireless services. But Anatel rejected this reasoning.
Maintaining the regulator's decision will reflect badly on the government, Yankee Group senior analyst Luis Minoru told BNamericas, since the decision is contrary to the opinion of communications minister Miro Teixeira.
"Anatel looks at best inconsistent because it published Resolution 314 and then retracted it," Teixeira said. "The minister of communication will look weak because the decision would be against his stated preference."
Among the losers from the decision on Wednesday is Vivo, Brazil's only CDMA player, which as the sole market buyer will have less bargaining power from CDMA suppliers, despite having more than a 50% share of the market, he added.
Another loser is local fixed line incumbent Brasil Telecom, which also would like to use its existing 1900MHz license to launch mobile operations. It is now expected to opt for GSM technology, which will require it to build out a new network on the 1800MHz band, as stipulated in the regulations tied to the PCS licenses sold in November.
Vesper's majority owner is US-based CDMA chipset developer Qualcomm (Nasdaq: QCOM).
By Karen Keller
BNamericas.com |
