Brazil’s communications minister Paulo Bernardo has told journalists that all domestic mobile operators holding 2.5GHz licences for the provision of Long Term Evolution (LTE) services will launch by 30 April 2012. Speaking on the sidelines of the Mobile World Congress in Barcelona, BNamericas quotes Bernardo as saying that the carriers themselves have given him their personal assurances of the fact.
Under the terms of the original licence awards, the winners are required to deploy commercial 4G services in the six cities hosting the FIFA Confederations Cup in June. However, to date only Telecom Americas (Claro) has launched LTE commercially, in the cities of Recife (a host city) and Curitiba. Although the capital Brasilia has around 80 LTE cell sites in operation, Bernardo says that delays in providing 4G are because the spectrum is still being occupied by MMDS pay-TV operators.