Buoying BrOI: ANATEL Sessions on Concession Progression

BrOI. Source: Convergência Digital. Merger requires overhaul of federal regulation of broadcast concessions. Expect a human cockfight, with eye-gouging and ear-biting, over the issue.

DCI: Comércio, Indústria & Serviços (Brazil), a fine little business daily here, evaluates the strategic outlook for changes to the regulatory framework for “digital convergence” here in Brazil.

File this under “things I do not yet understand very well, but am trying to.”

Maybe the report will reach some reader who does have a better idea of what all of this signifies.

The PGO, the federal “general plan of [broadcast] concessions,” must be amended in order for the merger between Brasil Telecom and Oi (ex-Telemar) to go through. Currently, no two regional telephone operators may merge (much as no two Baby Bells were allowed to merge after the break-up of AT&T — at least for a while there).

See also

• CartaCapital: No Joy Over BrOI
• BrOI: Done (Potential) Deal
• BrOI: Material Events
• Non-Event of the Month: BrT-Oi Merger?
• What’s Cooking at Anatel? Time Will Tell

Telecoms will increase pressure against new concession plan

Victor Hugo Alves

SÃO PAULO – The chilly silence of fixed-line telephone operators like Telefônica, Oi (ex-Telemar), Embratel and Brasil Telecom during the first public hearing on the Plano Geral de Outorgas (“general concession plan,” or PGO), held in Brasília … will not last. The telecoms are starting to compare notes on their questions and criticisms about the policy. These should start to be voiced in the next public hearing, scheduled for July 7 in São Paulo, where the telecoms will exprss their opposition to certain provisions of the PGO in a bid to overturn the rule requiring fixed telephony and broadband operations to be carried on by distinct companies.

Another important fact is that after receiving many petitions on the subject, the National telecommunications Agency (Anatel) has put the issue of extending the period of pubic comment on the PGO on the agenda for its meeting today. According to a source close to the matter, the Anatel board will likely grant the extension, the only question being whether the extension will be for 15 or 30 days. “The tendency points to an extension of the period for public consultations. It’s just a matter of whether they will extend it for 15 or 30 days”. With an extension of the comment period, new public hearings should be scheduled on issues not yet taken up, such as the situation of the Brazilian South, a topic all of the Anatel advisory board members would like to see debated.