American Tower Corporation Q2 2009 Earnings Call Transcript

  • download
  • Print
  • Recommend
  • 0

2009-07-29 14:23:19.0

Tags: India, Call Transcript, Earnings, Spectrum, Auction, Carrier, Wireless, Government, Vertical Industries, Wi-Fi, Wireless And Mobility, Seeking Alpha, American Tower Corp.

Question-and-Answer Session

Operator

(Operator instructions) Your first question is from the line of Jonathan Atkin with RBC Capital Markets.

Jonathan Atkin – RBC Capital Markets

Yes, good morning. I wondered if you could maybe just amplify a little bit your views on the regulatory environment in Latin America and in India as pertains to spectrum and any other events that might foster additional network build out.

Jim Taiclet

Hi Jon, it’s Jim. First of all, in Latin America Brazil is already out of the gate, and I would say in all three countries you mentioned there is governments in place that see the benefit of a competitive wireless market with as much spectrum depth for the carriers as possible to deliver new services to their people. And in Brazil, they are well on their way to providing that spectrum. It’s being utilized by a number of carriers. Spectrum auctions have also increased the availability of wireless service in the Northeast part of the country, which is somewhat less developed than the Sol Paulo and Rio areas, so I think it’s a government that wants the people to get service and to get it with a choice of vendors. Mexico is a little more concentrated as far as carrier market share as you know with Telcel at 70% plus market share, and I think the government there is trying to work its way through creating a more competitive environment for the additional carriers to be more competitive, frankly, and it's getting there. Trostel [ph] has now set standards for an auction that now has to wind its way through a few more regulatory agencies for final approval, and we hope that either late this year or early next year that that auction will be launched.

But again, I think the government wants its citizenry to have first-class wireless communication capabilities with multiple choices. And in fact, in both these countries and in India, which I will get to you here in a second -- wireless is essentially leapfrogging what little wireline infrastructure those countries have, so there is a real government interest I think in all three places to get people communication service on a competitive basis. In India, I would emphasize the government is very active in trying to accomplish just that. Not only do they release spectrum as soon as they think they reasonably can, but they do it in a way that encourages more carriers rather than less to get into the market and that is happening right now. So I would say the regulatory environment in all three places is moving in a right direction. Mexico may be at a little bit slower pace than the other two. But again, over a five to ten-year time horizon, which is how we look at things, at the end of the day we think there is going to be very high penetration in all these counties. Wireless will be the predominant way of communicating in those countries and we are going to be a big part of it.

 

BNET TalkbackShare your ideas and expertise on this topic

Please add your comment:

  1. You are currently: a Guest |
  2.  

Basic HTML tags that work in comments are: bold (<b></b>), italic (<i></i>), underline (<u></u>), and hyperlink (<a href></a)

advertisement
advertisement
  • Click Here
  • Click Here
  • Click Here
advertisement
Click Here