BUENOS AIRES, Argentina-PCS arrived in South America a year ago, and various signs already point to its success. Already, one PCS operator in Chile has surpassed the number of subscribers held by a traditional cellular operator in the country. In addition, payment of US$1.273 billion by the four existing cellular operators for 12 regional PCS licenses in Argentina caused quite a stir this summer.
Although just four companies offer commercial PCS service today, another six have been awarded licenses-in Argentina, Bolivia and Paraguay-and will launch PCS services in less than a year.
The surprise
The PCS auction in Argentina was delayed for more than two years due to various legal conflicts, and the sum finally paid for the licenses came as a surprise to industry players.
“Although it is true that the Department of Communications planned to collect around US$700 million and it actually collected US$1.273 billion, in our case the intention was to secure areas where we currently cannot offer services,” said Jorge Quitegui, strategic planning manager for Unifon, a Telef
