Earlier this week, Luiz Eduardo Falco had promised roaming for São Paulo within the next 30 days, but analysts don?t see much chance that Oi will be able to do that. According to Anatel director Luiz Tito Cerasoli, if the plan is to use TIM?s network for this purpose, it will fail because TIM doesn?t have a license. ?It would be positive if they could do that because of the benefits to customers, but Oi hasn?t applied for permission to Anatel so far,? he says. ?Anyway, I don?t know if it would be technically feasible because frequencies haven?t been allocated to TIM yet.? Mr Falco expected to persuade Anatel to allow secondary use of TIM?s network in São Paulo and other areas for which it has a PCS license. Another possibility would be to import dual-mode handsets (TDMA/GSM). However, a director of a leading telecoms equipment vendor consulted by TELETIME News says that isn?t a plausible solution, given the lack of production scale. Oi also believed supplier cellsites outside its coverage area could be used, but market watchers say there aren?t enough of them to guarantee minimum roaming.
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