Anatel holds meeting with cellcos, MMDS operators on 2.5GHz band

Brazil’s telecoms watchdog Anatel has held its first discussions with the country’s Multichannel Multipoint Distribution Service (MMDS) operators and its four main mobile service providers concerning the vacation of the 2.5GHz band by MMDS providers, and the compensation they will receive for relinquishing 120MHz of spectrum for Long Term Evolution (LTE) use. According to NextTV Latam Daily News, Brazil’s Neotec association – which represents the national MMDS industry – has advocated that the watchdog uses the value currently attached to its members’ current spectrum allocation (50MHz of TDD spectrum and 10MHz + 10MHz FDD) and use this as a basis for calculating what they would be due in compensation. Neotec president Carlos Andre Lins de Albuquerque, says his group’s proposal would offer ‘a systemic solution for all the operators’, adding that the compensation package offered ‘must consider the investments made and not amortised, in addition to the cost of migration of customers towards other technologies such as DTH (in pay-TV) or LTE for broadband’. Under resolution 544/2010 Anatel has until June to discuss the clearing of the 2.5GHz band.