Brazil Telecom Agency Anatel hosted the 4G auction where 28 national and regional licenses were sold for R$2.72B ($1.31B), according to O GLOBO. The amount was 34.37% over the minimum price accepted by the government. The four largest operators: Claro, Vivo, Oi, and TIM purchased R$2.56B ($1.24B) of the R$2.72B ($1.31B). Vivo will pay R$1.05B ($507M), Claro R$844.5M ($408.1M), TIM R$340M ($164.3M), and Oi R$330.9M ($159.9M) (O GLOBO, 6/12). In Sao Paulo, Joe Leahy reports Brazil's telecommunications market is one of the world's "fastest growing as its growing middle class takes to the mobile internet." Anatel which hosted the event said, "The sale aims to meet the growing demand for telecommunications services and to provide the appropriate infrastructure for the major international events that the country will host in the coming years" (FINANCIAL TIMES, 6/13). In Brasilia, Julia Borba reports the auction's rules "decree that the Confederation Cup's host cities must be covered by 4G connections by April 30, 2013." World Cup host cities and sub-host cities have a deadline of Dec. 31, 2013. All Brazilian cities with a population more than 100,000 "are required" to have 4G by Dec. 31, 2016. The auction is not over yet with Anatel still having 33 envelopes with proposals for regional low frequencies and another 36 frequencies which can be left for "a new round in the future" (FOLHA, 6/13).
