HONGLONG - Tom Phillips, Chief Government and Regulatory Affairs Officer, GSMA, offered the following statement regarding Brazil’s decision to allocate the 700MHz spectrum band to mobile:
“The GSMA welcomes today’s decision by Brazilian Minister of Communications, Paulo Bernardo, instructing regulator ANATEL to allocate the 700MHz spectrum band to mobile broadband services. Brazil’s action complements earlier decisions by other Latin American countries including Argentina, Bolivia, Chile, Colombia, Costa Rica, Ecuador, Mexico, Panama and Uruguay. This Digital Dividend spectrum is a key enabler for universal mobile broadband access, supporting affordable network roll-out and offering a host of socio-economic benefits for urban and rural populations alike, including those living in remote areas where fixed-line penetration is low.
“We now encourage ANATEL to work with Brazilian mobile operators to define the conditions and timing for licensing the spectrum to best advance development of the country’s wider mobile ecosystem and provide innovative services to consumers. Adoption of a harmonised 700MHz band plan will be essential to generate the economies of scale needed to deliver the full benefits of affordable mobile broadband services to the people of Brazil.”
