SAO PAULO-BellSouth Corp. announced late last week that its BCP S.A. cellular operation in Sao Paulo, Brazil, has wiped out its 1.8 million-person waiting list for cellular service, signing on in fewer than five months a total of 600,000 of those who originally had pre-subscribed for service. From here forward, anyone now can purchase an activated cell phone immediately, with no need to pre-subscribe.
Despite economic problems in Brazil, the pent-up demand for cellular service has kept the new subscriber rate high. Whether the take-up rate will significantly slow if economic conditions worsen is not certain, but BCP’s goals are clear: A Reuters report quoted BCP President Roberto Peon as saying BCP is on track to beat South Korea’s record of 1.2 million subscribers signed up in one year.
BCP competes in the city of Sao Paulo with Telesp Celular Participacoes S.A., the newly privatized A-band operator owned by Portugal Telecom, which has 1.35 million subscribers.
In other news, the sell-off of the region 8 B-band license, for the rural Amazon region of Brazil, is on again. Brazilian regulator Anatel is expected to open the region for bids again today. Just two proposals have been received, with only one consortium-including Splice do Brasil and Inepar-qualified by Anatel to participate.
The initial attempt to auction the Amazon B-band license last spring didn’t draw any bidders.
