Digital Law
The National Agency for Telecommunications (ANATEL) approved on July 12th, 2018, a new version of the general plan for competition targets. These new rules will be in force for the next four years. The text was under discussion and negotiation since 2016.
The main innovation introduced by these new rules is the creation of four large categories of Brazilian cities according to the level of competition in the telecommunications industry, ranging from highly competitive cities (category 1) to non-competitive cities (category 4). For each category, ANATEL may adopt different regulatory measures to correct the competitive asymmetries, or to encourage competition in the categories in which the provision of services is unfeasible without public policies.
Another innovation brought by the new general competition plan is the legal definition of Small Enterprise Provider (PPP, in Portuguese) as a company that holds a market share of less than 5% of the national retail market of telecommunications, and does not have a relationship with large providers, such as Oi, TIM, NET, Vivo, Claro, among others. Even though no rules with immediate effect have been enacted for the PPPs, the purpose of this definition is to make the regulatory obligations of the PPPs more flexible in the upcoming reviews of ANATEL’s rules, in order to foster competition through the deregulation of new and small companies.
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