By Shane Romig
BUENOS AIRES--Chinese state-run telecommunications company
Datang Mobile Communications is interested in teaming up with
Argentine government company Arsat to provide 3G and 4G cellular
communications in the South American country, according to
Argentine state news agency Telam.
Argentina's planning minister Julio De Vido met with Datang
officials this week and Arsat president Pablo Tognetti will travel
to China in the coming days to continue talks, Telam reported
Thursday.
Datang "expressed its desire to begin to operate in the
Argentine market," Telam said, citing planning ministry
officials.
Earlier this month, the Argentine government cancelled
long-delayed plans to auction a wireless spectrum to private-sector
investors, instead giving it to Arsat.
The canceled spectrum auction came as a blow to Argentina's four
incumbent wireless carriers--Telecom Argentina SA (TEO, TECO2.BA)
and subsidiaries of Mexico's America Movil SAB de CV (AMX, AMOV,
AMX.MX), Spain's Telefonica SA (TEF, TEF.MC) and U.S.-based NII
Holdings Inc. (NIHD).
Arsat now has about 20% of Argentina's available 3G spectrum and
will seek joint venture partners to develop its own wireless
network to bring more competition and lower rates to the mobile
phone industry, Mr. De Vido said at the time.
Argentina boasts one of the highest rates of mobile-phone
ownership in the world, with about 55 million wireless subscribers
in a country of almost 41 million people.
President Cristina Kirchner has greatly increased the state's
role in the economy, nationalizing a number of key companies that
had been privatized in the 1990's including flagship carrier
Aerolineas Argentinas and the largest oil and gas company YPF SA
(YPF, YPFD.BA).
Her administration appears to have big plans for Arsat, a
company whose budgeted revenue this year totals just 430 million
Argentine pesos ($92 million).
The company is already committed to a number of ambitious and
very expensive projects, including the launch of a satellite next
year and the deployment of a 58,000 kilometer nationwide
fiber-optic network.
Arsat will be the exclusive provider of 4G connections, Telam
reported.
Mr. De Vido is in China to seek financing for a pair of
hydroelectric dams in the southern province of Santa Cruz. China's
top dam engineers Sinohydro and China Gezhouba expressed interest
in bidding on the dams' construction, Argentina's planning ministry
said in a statement Thursday.
De Vido will next travel to Russia for an Oct. 1 meeting with
Russia's energy minister Alexander Novak and then on to Brazil to
try and drum up investment.
The government estimates the two dams will cost just under $4
billion to build and provide 5.2 gigawatts per year when built, or
4.7% of the country's electricity use.
The government is going to open the bidding process for
construction on Dec. 12 and expects to break ground during the
first half of 2013.
Write to Shane Romig at shane.romig@dowjones.com
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