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To: Valueman who wrote (20285)	12/22/1998 4:50:00 PM
From: Ruffian	Respond to of 152472

Brazil> Tuesday December 22, 4:25 pm Eastern Time Spurned Brazil phone licenses seen wooing bidders BRASILIA, Dec 22 (Reuters) - The sale of two major Brazilian telephone licenses -- on hold because of a lack of bidders -- has now attracted the interest of at least five groups, the head of the country's telecommunications regulator said Tuesday. Renato Guerreiro, director-president of the National Telecommunications Agency (ANATEL), told Reuters he expected the auctions of the licenses to provide fixed-line services in the south of the country and in Sao Paulo state to be successful. In an interview, he said consortia involving Brazilian, Canadian and Japanese investors had shown interest in the licenses, referred to locally as ''mirror'' concessions. Earlier this month ANATEL delayed until March 11 the auction of the mirror licenses to compete with Tele Centro Sul and with Telesp , two subsidiaries of federal telecommunications holding Telebras , which was privatized earlier this year. Two other licenses -- one to compete against Tele Norte Leste , another former fixed-line unit of Telebras, and the other rivaling long-distance provider Embratel -- received firm proposals and are scheduled to be auctioned on Jan. 15. The sale of the mirror concessions forms part of the Brazilian government's plan to boost competition in the telecommunications sector. ''I am certain that we will manage to sell the other two,'' Guerreiro said, referring to the Telesp and Tele Centro Sul mirror licenses. He declined to estimate how much the sale of the four licenses might rake in for the government. No minimum prices have been fixed. Telesp itself was bought by a group led by Spain's Telefonica at the Telebras privatization in July, while Tele Centro Sul went to a consortium headed by Telecom Italia . Guerreiro said he expected losing bidders in the January sale of the Tele Norte Leste mirror would try again at the sale of Telesp and Tele Centro Sul concessions in March. Among the expected bidders for the Tele Norte Leste mirror is a group comprising Bell Canada International (Toronto:BI.TO - news), the Brazilian subsidiary of U.S.-based Qualcomm Inc. (Nasdaq:QCOM - news) and local conglomerate Grupo Vicunha. Another group including U.S. long-distance carrier Sprint Corp. (NYSE:FON - news) has said it will bid for the Embratel mirror license. Sprint was beaten to Embratel by rival MCI Corp. in July's privatization of Telebras. (Since then, MCI has completed its merger with WorldCom to form MCI WorldCom Inc. (Nasdaq:WCOM - news)) This time it has lined up with France Telecom and Britain's National Grid Group (quote from Yahoo! UK & Ireland: NGG.L). More Quotes and News: Bell Canada International Inc (Toronto:BI.TO - news) MCI WorldCom Inc (Nasdaq:WCOM - news) Qualcomm Inc (Nasdaq:QCOM - news) Sprint Corp (NYSE:FON - news)