General Plan for Universalisation Goals
National Broadband Plan
The Brazilian government recently approved amendments to both the General Plan for Universalisation Goals and the National Broadband Plan.
General Plan for Universalisation Goals
On June 30 2011 the third edition of the universalisation plan - which established the universal access obligations of fixed-switched telephony services under the public regime for 2011 to 2015 - was approved through Decree 7,512. The plan establishes a series of new goals, catering predominantly to people on low incomes and those residing in rural areas.
The decree determines that the National Telecommunications Agency (ANATEL) must adopt the necessary regulatory measures to establish quality standards for the telecommunications services that support internet access by October 31 2011. Such measures include minimum and medium effective connection speed parameters and the publicity and transparency rules that allow for measurement of the quality perceived by users.
The decree also stipulates that the 450 megahertz (MHz) band must be available as a condition for the supply of rural telephony. Accordingly, incumbents will only be required to take telephony to rural areas only if they have the 450 MHz band, directly or by sharing infrastructure with companies that won the bidding process for this frequency. The decree establishes that the bidding process for the 450 MHz frequency - as well as the 2.5 gigahertz (GHz) frequency band - is expected to be launched by ANATEL on or before April 30 2012.
Concurrent with the amendments to the universalisation plan, the government negotiated the adhesion of fixed telephony incumbents to the National Broadband Plan. The approval of the universalisation plan was possible only following a series of concessions by the government, including removing the requirement for a guarantee of 40% of the nominal speed of broadband service, which would subsequently be increased to 70%. Currently, providers guarantee only 10% of the nominal speed.
In exchange, the incumbents have undertaken to supply 1 megabit per second (Mbps) internet access throughout the country for R35 by 2014. The service should begin in 90 days. To meet this commitment, incumbents can use the connections offered by the 3G network of those mobile telephony operators that belong to their economic groups. When broadband is supplied by the fixed network, incumbents can include the service at R35 in package deals that include telephony and pay television.
For further information on this topic please contact Ricardo Barretto Ferreira Da Silva, Fabio Ferreira Kujawski or Thays Castaldi Gentil at BARRETTO FERREIRA KUJAWSKI E BRANCHER – Sociedade de Advogados by telephone (+55 11 3897 0300), fax (+55 11 3897 0330) or email ([email protected], [email protected] or [email protected]).