By Andre Romani
SAO PAULO (Reuters) – The board of directors of the National Telecommunications Agency (Anatel) on Tuesday approved the methodology for calculating the cost of adapting fixed telephony concessions to the authorization model, which should burden companies in the sector by around of 22.6 billion reais.
The amount is divided between 12.2 billion to the Oi group, 7.7 billion to Telefônica Brasil and 2.3 billion to Claro, a subsidiary of Mexico’s América Móvil, according to the municipality. In addition, there are 275.3 million for Algar and 167.1 million for Sercomtel.
The adaptation of grants is not mandatory, that is, concessionaires can choose to migrate or not to the authorization regime, which does not carry universalization obligations defined in the concession contracts.
The calculated values refer to the adaptation of the fixed telephony service granting of the concession model, whose contracts expire in 2025, for authorization, according to the law approved in 2019.
According to the legislation, the amount charged for adaptation is “the difference between the expected value of operating the adapted service under an authorization regime and the expected value of operating this service under a concession regime”, to be reversed “in investment commitments , prioritized according to the directives of the executive power”.
Concessionaires of the concession contracts of the so-called Fixed Switched Telephone Service (STFC), including Telefônica Brasil and Oi, and Anatel are fighting billions in disputes in arbitration chambers over companies’ requests for financial rebalancing of contracts.
At the end of June, the president of Anatel, Carlos Baigorri, stated that the best solution for fixed telephony concession contracts is “an end without litigation”, but that this does not depend only on the agency, but on the interests of the concessionaires themselves and of regulatory agents.
According to him, Anatel will have to find new concessionaires if current companies do not want to continue providing the service at the end of the concession contracts and the challenge is “how to design a concession that is viable and attractive in a post-2025 world”.
The final documents on the methodology must be forwarded to the Federal Audit Court (TCU), according to the agency.
