Brazil And Russia Prepare For 4G Era

The BRIC countries are where vendors and operators expect to find the biggest antidote to market slowdown in developed economies. The growth of mobile data in India and China usually grabs the headlines, but the other two BRIC members, Brazil and Russia, are also making progress towards wireless broadband.

Focal Points:

• Brazil's government is preparing three spectrum auctions for next year and is starting consultation on a fourth process, all geared to increasing mobile data capacity. The first two sales will be in 2.5GHz and 450MHz, and should take place in April, followed by a second swathe of 3.5GHz spectrum later in the year. And the regulator is kicking off plans to auction the 700MHz digital dividend frequencies.
• Telefonica and America Movil, the head-to-head regional giants in Latin America, are both expected to bid for 2.5GHz licenses to support LTE rollouts. Joao Batista de Rezende, head of the Anatel regulator, said in an interview: "The Brazilian market will guarantee return on investment. From the conversations I'm having, nobody is going to miss out on this kind of spectrum, because that would mean missing out on 4G." Other candidates are likely to include Telecom Italia's Brazilian unit, TIM Participacoes, as well as Tele Norte Leste, NII Holdings and Vivendi's Global Village Telecom.
• Anatel is also preparing an auction in the second half of 2012 for the 3.5GHz band, which has traditionally supported WiMAX or fixed wireless. There is no LTE profile in this band but it can be used for short-range video and data services, and particularly for backhaul and enterprise links. "It strengthens the data transmission infrastructure of the big companies," Rezende said. "Mobile service is going to need more frequencies in the future."
• By the end of 2012, Brazil will have offered 764MHz of spectrum to cellcos but it needs 980MHz by 2015 to keep up with demand, according to the ITU. The 700MHz band will help with that target, but as elsewhere, it needs to be freed up by its broadcaster incumbents. They are expected to leave the band by 2016 as they switch to digital TV services.
• Over in Russia, the government's approach to accelerating LTE roll-out, even before many frequencies have been freed up, has been to encourage the creation of a single network to be shared by the four main carriers. This is to be built and run by former WiMAX start-up Yota in the spectrum it already holds for mobile broadband, with the three cellcos and fixed line giant Rostelecom all using it for initial LTE services, and potentially taking stakes in Yota.

Editor’s Note: It’s interesting to note that the undeveloped countries (with respect to technology infrastructure) might end up ahead since they are taking advantage of lessons learned in their more developed neighbors. The other interesting observation is that a country-wide standard/shared infrastructure will shorten the maturity cycle as well.