Tag Archives: Regulatory

Regulator Disconnects 113,000 SIM Cards in El Salvador

Telecoms, , ,

El Salvador’s telecoms regulator has announced that some 113,000 prepaid mobile accounts have been cut-off this year due to their ownership details not being correctly registered.

The regulator operates a “Register of Mobile Phone Users” (RUTEM) which logs the personal ID of each SIM card users, although it is not currently a legal requirement and the regulator is pushing the government to pass the necessary legislation.

The head of the regulator, Luis Méndez Menéndez also confirmed that the regulator is still in talks with the government and mobile networks over the deployment of Mobile Number Portability.

Their studies indicate that it would cost around US$15 million to deploy, and that the cost would be borne by the mobile networks, if implemented.

Mexico to Recalls LTE Spectrum from MVS

High Tech, Telecoms, , , , , , ,

The Mexican government has announced that it will not renew the licenses held by companies in the 2.5Ghz spectrum band and plans to recall the spectrum when the licenses expire.

The most significantly affected company will be MVS Comunicaciones which has 190Mhz of spectrum in the affected block. MVS holds 42 of the available 68 concessions in the spectrum band, with the rest allocated to 11 other companies.

Last year, MVS Comunicaciones announced plans for a US$1 billion investment in a 4G mobile network as part of a consortium of companies, including US WiMAX operator, Clearwire and chipmaker, Intel. The company later abandoned the plans, citing a poor regulatory regime in the country.

MVS had offered US$500 million to renew its licenses, but the government had asked for US$1.2 billion, and that was for two-thirds of its holdings. Talks have seemingly broken down and now the government will push ahead with the recall of the spectrum.

Communications and transport (SCT) minister Dionisio Perez-Jacome said that the spectrum would be recovered as just 200,000 customers would be affected and it can be resold for use by LTE services.

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Anatel approves 4G auction draft documents

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The board of Brazil’s National Telecommunications Agency (Anatel) approved the draft documents for the auction of radio frequencies in the bands 450 MHz and 2.5 GHz, intended for LTE services. The bidding will be held by 30 April 2012, according to Decree 7512 of 30 June 2011. Anatel’s proposal will remain in consultation for 30 days from the date of its publication in the Official Gazette, with public hearings in Brasilia and Sao Paulo.

According to the regulator, the winners should be committed to taking measures to expand the penetration of voice and data telecommunication services in rural and remote areas at affordable prices. They should also provide broadband internet free of charge to all rural public schools in the areas they serve. The goal is to provide every state capital and every city with more than 500,000 inhabitants with 4G mobile telephony by 2014, in time for the football World Cup tournament, which will take place in Brazil.

Paraguay regulator to investigate Tigo CPC merger

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The Paraguayan Congress has requested a review by telecoms regulator Conatel on the resolution that authorized the merger of Telefonica Celular del Paraguay (Telecel) and Compania Privada de Comunicaciones (CPC), Portal Paraguayo de Noticias reports. Telecel operates on the local market under the Tigo brand name.

Back in 2011 Conatel had approved the merger between the two companies, which also granted the use of the 900 MHz frequency band by Tigo. According to the initiative started by congresswoman Olga Ferreira de Lopez, Tigo was thus allowed to provide 4G mobile broadband services to the detriment of state-owned company Copaco.

Conatel will have to provide details on the procedure via which it gave the green light to the two operators’ merger, as well as make public the reason why the CPC maintained a valid licence for use of the 900 MHz spectrum, since the authorization was granted in 1997 but the spectrum had never been used until the merger.