CARACAS -(Dow Jones)- Movilnet and Telefonica's Movistar, two of Venezuela's main cellular operators, each will pay $120 million to operate two blocs of bandwith in the country, Telecommunications Minister Jesse Chacon said Wednesday.
The National Telecommunications Commission awarded the blocs to the companies, Chacon told a group of reporters.
"They will pay $120 million each," he said. The payments will be made in installments: an initial $60 million downpayment, then $30 million at the end of 2008 and $30 million at the end of 2009.
The tender for the blocs began in June and, according to Chacon, it will allow for an "increase in the use of cellular technology throughout the country."
Movilnet belongs to Nacional de Telefonos de Venezuela, or CANTV, the country's leading telecommunications company, which the government nationalized earlier in the year.
-By Darcy Crowe, Dow Jones Newswires; (58) 212 564 1339; darcy.crowe@dowjones.com
(END) Dow Jones Newswires
Posted to the site on 28th November 2007
Posted to: www.cellular-news.com/story/27752.php