BSE (merged with BCP SA (Claro))

active

BSE was awarded a 15-year concession to provide cellular phone services through the B band (800s MHz) in area 10 in August 1997. The area 10 comprised the states of Pernambuco, Ceara, Rio Grande do Norte, Paraiba, Piaui, and Alagoas. The Brazilian telecommunications market was divided in 10 areas in 1996 in order to assign licenses for cellular phone services. In each area, the B band was assigned to a private consortium through a competitive bidding and the A band was assigned to the state owned company that provided local fixed phone services in the concession area. Tele Nordeste Celular, the state-owned competitor of BSE, was privatized in July 1998. BSE won its license through a competitive bidding when it offered US$ 512 million (r$556 million) for the license in August 1997. BSE is a consortium led by BellSouth International and integrated by Grupo Safra, RBS, Splice and Grupo O Estado de Sao Paulo. The concession contract was signed in August 1997 when the consortium paid 40% of their offering. The 60% remaining has to be paid in three equal parts during the first three years of the concession contract. The consortium raised US$ 650 million in the international financial markets in March 1998 to finance the 40% of its bidding for the license and to invest US$450 million during its first three years of operations. The company started its commercial operations in June 1998. BCP and BSE operates under the same commercial brand BCP Telecomunicacoes. In May 2003, Telecom Americas bought a 95% stake in BSE from BellSouth and Verbier, a division of Grupo Safra. Telecom Americas is a subsidiary of America Movil and, since August 2003, all its mobile operations in Brazil have been using the brand name "Claro". America Movil has grouped it's Brazilian operating companies (ATL, Tess, BCP, BSE, Claro Digital, and Americel) under this group. From 2004 all information is recorded under BCP (Claro). 2003 investment figures were obtained by distributing America Movil's 2003 investment in facilities by the number of total subscribers for each project - thus 2003 investment is a proxy given other regional investment of America Movil. None