Anatel wants a definitive solution to end abusive marketing this year – 02/01/2023 – Market

Anatel (National Telecommunications Agency) expects to reach a definitive solution to the problem of abusive telemarketing calls by the end of the year. The information was passed on today (1st) during the presentation of the stock balance to resolve the issue.

Since June last year, the agency has been adopting precautionary measures to reduce the number of this type of calls. Among them are the blocking of users and the authorization to providers to charge for short calls of up to three seconds, which was not allowed.

“The agency is not just looking at Brazil. All over the world, many countries are experiencing similar problems. We are studying the best practices to build a definitive solution for Brazil”, said the agency’s adviser, Arthur Coimbra. “We hope that, by the end of the year, we will have a definitive solution,” he said.

One of the actions would be the implementation of call authentication, which would serve as a kind of guarantee seal of the origin of the call. Through it, the person could know which company is calling and even the reason for the call. In addition to giving the user the option of knowing who is wanting to get in touch, the measure would also help to avoid phone scams.

In February, the agency should hold several meetings with associations of telemarketing and billing companies to collect suggestions and criticisms of the implementation of call identification and authentication measures. According to Anatel, the objective is to identify “ways to seek a balance between the legal activity they perform and the rational use of telecommunications services”.

calls

In the week of edition of the first precautionary measure promoted by Anatel, from June 5 to 11, 2022, about 4 billion short calls were made per week. In the week of January 15 to 21, 2023, the number was 2.47 billion calls.

According to the superintendent of Consumer Relations at Anatel, Cristiana Camarate, even with the measures, the telecommunications networks still have a very high number of connections.

“What we have from June until now is a 40% reduction in the total number of calls made per week. This represents around 41 billion short calls of up to 3 seconds that were no longer made,” he said. “It’s as if each Brazilian stopped receiving 200 calls in the period”, she said.

Portal

This Wednesday, Anatel launched the Qual Empresa me Ligou portal to check, through the number originating the incoming call, the name of the company calling landlines or mobiles.

Anatel’s superintendent of Grants and Provision Resources, Vinícius Caram, said that the use of the tool will be simple, without the need for a login or password.

“It will provide information on which legal entity made the call. The consumer, upon receiving a number, puts it on the page and will identify which company is calling”, he said.

According to the agency, in this first stage, information from the following telecommunications service providers is being made available: Algar, Claro, Oi, Sercomtel, Tim and Vivo. Over the coming months, information from other providers will be added.

The issue involving abusive telemarketing reached the Federal Supreme Court (STF), which will judge between the 10th and 17th of February the regimental grievance presented against the decision of Minister Edson Fachin who rejected a Direct Action of Unconstitutionality (ADI) 7166, proposed by sector entities against an Anatel rule that obliges the use of the code 0303 in telemarketing calls.