Anatel Board Drafting Revamp for the Regulator

The board of Brazil's telecoms regulator Anatel is drafting a plan to restructure comprehensively the agency since its operations are based on guidelines drafted 10 years ago, local press quoted Anatel head Ronaldo Sardenberg as saying at a ceremony to celebrate the entity's 10th anniversary.

The plan is to adjust the institution's mission to take account of technological change and changes in the country's economy, Sardenberg said.

Sardenberg believes the project is also an opportunity to identify potential changes that would make Anatel more agile and cut down on red tape.

In particular, Sardenberg wants to increase the emphasis on monitoring service quality, but at the same time asked operators to take a more proactive role in reducing complaints. He also believes that the country's existing infrastructure can be exploited much more effectively as a tool for universal access.

"The investment has already been made and amortized. Now we must put those investments to use," he said. Various solutions, including network unbundling, are being studied in this respect. One of the symptoms is that the number of fixed lines in Brazil has not risen above 40mn in the last three years, whereas mobile lines continue to grow, now surpassing 113mn.

Anatel staff are starting by going over proposals made on various occasions in the past and Sardenberg expects a proposal to be ready before the end of the year. Once published it would take about three months for changes to be implemented.

The agency almost went through a major change in 2005, with a plan to add four operational subdivisions to the six it was already composed of. However, communications minister Helio Costa vetoed the plan on grounds that such changes would require a presidential decree.

Posted to the site on 7th November 2007