America Movil, Telefonica, Telecom Italia win bids in Brazil's 5G auction

Local units of America Movil, Telefonica and Telecom Italia won their bids for the 3.5 GHz spectrum band dedicated to fifth-generation (5G) wireless technology on Thursday in Brazil's largest-ever cellular auction.

Local units of America Movil, Telefonica and Telecom Italia won their bids for the 3.5 GHz spectrum band dedicated to fifth-generation (5G) wireless technology on Thursday in Brazil's largest-ever cellular auction. Claro, owned by Mexican billionaire Carlos Slim's America Movil SAB de CV, took the B1 batch for 338 million reais ($60 million), and Spain's Telefonica SA, which runs Brazil's largest wireless carrier under the Vivo brand , won the B2 batch with a 420 million reais bid.

TIM SA , an unit of Telecom Italia SpA , got the B3 batch for 351 million reais. Patria investments manager's wireless company Winity II won the first batch auction in the 700 MHz bandwidth with a 1.4 billion reais bid.

Brazilian internet service provider Brisanet won the C4 batch in the 3.5 GHz regional coverage band with a bid of 1.25 billion reais. With two bands still to go, the auction has raised about 4 billion reais, half of what telecoms regulator Anatel has expected to get for the concessions, which entail commitments from the winners to invest some 45 billion reais ($8 billion).

The long-awaited auction was delayed by differences over the involvement of China's Huawei Technologies Co Ltd as a supplier of 5G telecom equipment, which the United States had pressed Brazil's far-right government to ban on security grounds. After a compromise aimed at shielding government communications, Brazil has moved ahead with the tender of four broadcast bands: 700 megahertz (MHz), 2.3 gigahertz (GHz), 3.5 GHz and 26 GHz.

Industry groups have long anticipated the chance for Brazil to catch up on 5G technology allowing greater efficiency and automation in fields from healthcare to agribusiness. However, slow local licensing for new antennas across the country may drag on the rollout of the new wireless coverage. The telecom infrastructure sector expects Brazil's 5G networks to generate new business opportunities worth over $1 trillion over 15 years and create 1.5 million jobs in four years, said Vivien Suruagy, head of a federation of 137,000 companies.

Unlike other countries such as Sweden, Brazil has not excluded Huawei from its coveted 5G market despite diplomatic pressure from the United States. Brazil's main wireless firms already use Huawei for more than half of their networks and argued that banning Huawei would add billions of dollars in additional costs that would be passed on to consumers.

Instead, President Jair Bolsonaro's government decided to build a separate network for itself and all federal agencies, from which Huawei will effectively be excluded. The government stipulated that bidders must comply with the governance rules of publicly listed companies, which Huawei does not. ($1 = 5.5750 reais)

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