SAO PAULO, Brazil-Anatel should allow the current operators of cellular mobile service in Brazil the option of choosing the frequency for additional spectrum for operating PCS. Some operators want the additional frequencies at 1.8 GHz and some at 1.9 GHz.
Brazilian telecom regulator Anatel has proposed giving incumbent cellular operators 5 megahertz of spectrum in the 1.9 GHz band. New PCS carriers will be licensed at 1.8 GHz.
Current carrier Telesp Celular made its 1.8 GHz request in comments sent to Anatel’s public consultation for PCS guidelines. Additional frequencies only at 1.9 GHz reduce competitive interests of companies looking to operate PCS services, it argued.
According to Telesp, allowing incumbents to choose a frequency for additional spectrum creates synergies with other areas of service in a consolidation strategy. “Those synergies predispose an operation with GSM technology, and they refer to the roaming offered to customers and increased bargaining power for acquisition of network components. The frequency of 1.9 GHz severely hinders all those possibilities for Cellular Telesp if we intend to explore PCS in the Areas 1 and 2,” said the operator.
Telefonica Celular contends the additional frequencies that current Band A and B operators will receive if they migrate to PCS services should be enlarged from 5 megahertz to 10 megahertz in the 1.8 GHz spectrum band and not in the 1.9 GHz band, as Anatel suggested. By gaining an additional 5 megahertz of spectrum at 1.9 GHz, the incumbents lose a competitive advantage to the current operators, because of their inability to adopt GSM technology in large urban centers. This will cause a short-term competitive imbalance and a future reduction of the competitive capacity in third-generation services, Telefonica said in suggestions sent to Anatel.
According to Telefonica, increasing the 5-megahertz allotment to 10 megahertz “will provide, inside of a model of fair competition, the evolution of the current operators of AMPS/TDMA/CDMA for a pattern to GSM.”
