TVA has been granted licenses to offer telephone service in numbering areas 11 (São Paulo), 21 (Rio de Janeiro), 41 (Paraná), and 51 (Rio Grande do Sul). It has MMDS networks covering all these areas. In São Paulo TVA also runs a cable operation. The licenses issued by Anatel are for local telephony, but TVA can offer domestic long-distance and international services out of São Paulo. Management promised to disclose its business strategy after Anatel has published the grants in the Federal Register. This is expected to happen next week. Well-informed sources say Abril, which controls TVA, initially plans to use the licenses to reduce telecoms and call center expenses. Eventually it aims to transform the pay-TV operator into a multiservice CLEC, at least in São Paulo. TVA recently held infrastructure sharing talks with telcos. Another important point is that the licenses will enable TVA to at last make commercial use of its MMDS license for Porto Alegre, Rio Grande do Sul. It?s the first pay-TV company to receive telephone licenses since restrictions were eased early in 2002. At one time Image Telecom, based in Uberlândia, Minas Gerais, offered telephone service using a license issued to CTBC Telecom, and Way TV won a small CLEC license but never used it.
Competition
