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Brazil will likely hold an auction to sell new licenses to operate high-speed wireless-data transfer in 2010, a response to growing consumer demand for these services, said Roberto Pinto Martins, telecommunications secretary at the Communications Ministry.

Speaking at an event in Brasilia Thursday, he declined to comment on whether the auction would involve WiMax or fourth-generation technology, which provides super-fast data transfer.

"Brazil needs to hold a new auction, as it is clear that broadband networks aren't keeping up with demand," he said.

The government wants to foster greater wireless broadband capacity in urban areas, he added.

Mobile-phone operators, including Vivo Participacoes (VIV), TIM Participacoes (TSU) and Claro, a unit of America Movil (AMX), are set to spend more than 10 billion Brazilian reals ($5.2 billion) this year on third-generation wireless data networks.

This week, telecom regulator Anatel suspended the sale of Telesp's (TSP) Speedy service in Sao Paulo state because of quality problems, which the government body said are related to insufficient capacity.

-By Alastair Stewart, Dow Jones Newswires; 55-11-2847-4520; alastair.stewart@dowjones.com