Robert Conway and Mark Smith, CEO and communications director of the GSM Association respectively, met this week with Communications Minister Miro Teixeira to discuss the allocation of the 1800 MHz band to PCS (Portuguese-language acronym SMP) and the controversial request by one telco for permission to use 1900 MHz instead. According to Rob Conway, the meeting with Mr Teixeira was very positive. The minister stressed his commitment to fair competition, he said. No preference would be given to any company or group. Decisions would be entirely transparent. ?We liked what the minister said. We also follow those principles. However, I don?t know how he plans to apply them to this case,? Mr Conway said.
Miro Teixeira recently came out in public to express his personal opinion that Anatel should allow Vésper to make secondary use of the 1900 MHz band for PCS.
Rob Conway said GSMA has no intention of proposing anything that might limit competition. What the association wants, he stressed, is ?fairness and stability of the game for all players in the market?. The PCS rules must remain as established by contract, regardless of the technology used. ?If Vésper wants to use CDMA at 1800 MHz, as stipulated in its contract, we have no problem with that,? he said. ?Our members argue that there?s no reason to allow the 1900 MHz to be used for PCS. They signed contracts undertaking to build networks for a certain frequency and within a specified period and they expect other PCS operators to play by the same rules.?
Messrs Conway and Smith also paid a call on Luiz Guilherme Schymura, director-general of Anatel, and Deputy Corauci Sobrinho (PFL, São Paulo), who chairs the Communications Committee of the lower house of Congress.
