Brazilian Minister Slams Prepaid Rates, Operators Blame Taxes
Brazil's communications minister Helio Costa has criticized the country's mobile operators for the relatively high cost of prepaid calls and their policy of putting expiry dates on prepaid cards, local press reported.
Speaking at the opening ceremony of the Futurecom telecoms tradeshow in Florianopolis, Costa called on the operators and sector regulator Anatel to explore ways of bringing prepaid airtime prices closer to those of postpaid airtime.
According to Costa, the per minute cost of prepaid calls can be up to five times the cost of postpaid airtime, or up to US$0.50 per minute, and this is keeping low-income members of society from accessing basic prepaid mobile telephony. He also said that in many developed countries there are prepaid cards that do not expire for a year after activation, whereas in Brazil the limit is 180 days.
The mobile operators' association Acel and several operators were quick to answer with claims that it is the country's tax structure that is doing most to keep prices high. Acel's president Ercio Zilli questioned Costa's knowledge of the true difference between prepaid and postpaid rates, and pointed out that 28-38% of a typical phone bill is taxes.
Anatel head Ronaldo Sardenberg agreed that prepaid rates are too high but reminded Futurecom attendees that mobile pricing is unregulated. He also said he doubted Anatel would look at changes to prepaid card expiry rules until 2H08.
Fust Resources to be Freed
Costa went on to promise that the ministry would finally start disbursing significant amounts of the universal access fund Fust. The government expects to spend 1bn reais of the fund in 2008 compared to some 10mn reais disbursed so far this year.
However, contrary to the original purpose of the fund, next year's spending is likely to cover health, education and public security projects, as well as telecommunications.
The fund now holds some 6bn reais (US$3.27bn) and has been largely untouched until this year.
Posted to the site on 3rd October 2007
