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To: Art Bechhoefer who wrote (112936)	2/10/2002 4:32:29 PM
From: pcstel	Respond to of 152472

Art: Actually, The problem that Vesper faced in Brasil was two fold. First, the former Govt. owned wireline monopoly got whipped into shape real fast when Telefonica took over. Wait list times for wireline went from Years to months in record time. Vesper was adding subscribers like LWIN is. Then came the widespread fact that Vesper did not support dial up data rates anywhere near that of Telefonica's wireline infrastructure. When you are paying by the minute for access and you can only connect at dial up 1/4 the rate of wireline. WLL becomes an expensive solution. The other problem was the cost of the truck rolls to install the subscriber equipment. There was no contract with Vesper. Vesper experimented with CPE installs, but it was largely unsuccessful. Now when this became common knowledge. Demand for Vesper died! Telefonica whittled down the wireline backlog in record time. And that was the end of that story. So in order for fixed WLL to work in a compeditive environment. You have to offer the same feature sets at a similar cost to the wireline operator. Limited mobility will be an interesting test in Brasil. In a metropolis like Sao Paulo. People will commute two hours to go twenty-five miles to work. Selling a limited mobility solution to the working class that won't work at home and work will be problematic. It's an age old problem.. Those that can afford the service want complete mobility. Whereas those that can't afford the service, are the ones that could accept the limited mobility of the service. We are talking an economic base unlike here in the US. There is a stark contrast in the difference between the have's and have nots. I was in a taxi on the way to Congohas Airport going through Morumbi where on onw side of the street was the steel infrastructure of the New Hyatt Hotel with all of it's funded by Bank of Boston flags surrounding it. Directly to the south. The TV Globo Operations Center. 1/2 Block away were the Barrios where family living quarters are built out of refuge and built one above each other in some sort of "Stack of Cards" type fashion. Multi-Billion dollar building on one block, refuge used for housing on the next. Not much middle ground. Allot of times what makes sense from a US Citizen point of view. Makes little economic sense to those in a Developing Nation. PCSTEL