Entity says that drugs from the sale of Oi have no effect – 03/11/2023 – Market

One year after the approval of the sale of Oi’s mobile arm to its main competitors —Vivo, Claro and Tim—, Telcomp, an association that represents small and medium-sized operators, claims that the remedies imposed as conditions for the deal were not fulfilled .

That’s what a document sent this Thursday (9) by Telcomp to the General Superintendence of Cade (Administrative Council for Economic Defense) says.

Sending the document was a requirement of Cade’s own superintendence. Technicians from the antitrust body claim, however, that the entity’s complaint caused strangeness.

Cade approved the operation in April 2022 and, since then, claims to be monitoring compliance with the conditions through a specialized group.

The superintendence ordered the entity to deliver evidence of the accusations under penalty of a daily fine of up to R$ 5 million.

The sale of Oi’s mobile arm was a necessity for the company to try to get out of judicial recovery and get rid of a debt that, at the time, was R$ 65 billion. The process worked out well at first, but the operator made a new request to Justice and went into recovery again.

To endorse the sale, Cade and Anatel (National Telecommunications Agency) imposed rules for offering connections and sharing infrastructure (network) to competitors, under conditions that would be defined later by the telecommunications agency.

In this case, the period would be 75 days after approval of the sale for roaming offers —use of the network of one of the three telecoms when the customers of the contractors are outside its coverage area and in places without its operator’s network; and 105 days for MVNO offers, an acronym that defines virtual operators — such as Correios, which hire operators with their own network to provide telephone services in their place.

The offers resulting from these conditions were defined by the agency within the foreseen period, but the companies —Vivo, Tim and Claro— filed challenges at Anatel and in court.

First, they appealed against the criteria adopted in defining the price to be charged to those interested in signing roaming contracts.

Then, in the case of the MVNO, it was Telcomp that appealed against the conditions ratified by Anatel, according to the agency, in a contract between Tim and Algar, an operator affiliated with the entity. This was the first contract of its kind.

Tim went to court against this maneuver which, for companies in the sector, hides Telcomp’s interest in creating loopholes so that MVNO contracts (for permanent use) are used as roaming (for temporary use) —which cost more. The price difference, smaller in the case of the MVNO, would justify Telcomp’s action.

Telcomp denies this and says that it only appealed against the charge of an additional fee for “internet of things” connections [conexão entre equipamentos, conhecida no mercado como M2M].

The sale of Oi’s cellular operation was approved in April 2022 and took place by slicing the operator between the three buyers and main competitors. The division of customers was carried out in accordance with rules defined and monitored by Anatel.

Telcomp claims to have alerted Cade when the case was judged and now demands measures. “We said back there that it would be necessary to have a vaccine and not medicine”, said Luiz Henrique Barbosa, president of the association. “Medicine is something that comes later. The vaccine prevents it.”

The leader evaluates that there is a “dehydration of obligations through legal and administrative questions”.

One of the disputes, also according to Telcomp, refers to exclusivity in roaming contracts, something that Anatel maintained in the contracts.

Regulators and companies deny non-compliance

Cade’s general superintendent, Alexandre Barreto, states that “so far there are no elements that indicate the breach of obligations”. “In the face of allegations [da Telcomp]we ask for clarification and that they deliver the receipts”, said Barreto.

When consulted, the three companies did not respond until the publication of this report. In the process, they claim that the conditions for the purchase of Oi are being strictly complied with and remain under the supervision of Cade and Anatel.

They say that, in the beginning, there was some “turmoil” due to the guidelines defined by Anatel, but that these obstacles were overcome and offers are being made as interested parties seek each one of them to sign agreements.

The president of Anatel, Carlos Baigorri, rejected the delay in complying with the conditions for the sale of Oi.

“The offers are being made and we are ratifying the contracts,” he said. “There were questions, but this is part of the administrative process of any public and private service in any agency.”