After a Brazilian court denied TIM Brasil’s request to overturn telecom regulator Anatel’s suspension of its mobile service sales, the local unit of mobile phone carrier Telecom Italia presented its 800-page action plan to Anatel.
TIM said it will invest $225 million (R$450 million) this year — based on the already announced investment of $1.5 billion (R$3 billion) — to improve service quality. The investment will be distributed by states according to need. By the end of 2014, TIM said it will have invested $4.7 billion (R$9 billion) into its network.
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As of July 23, TIM is not allowed to sell wireless services in 19 states in Brazil, including Rio de Janeiro. TIM is seen as the most impacted of the three carriers that had sales suspended. Claro, which belongs to América Móvil, is suspended from selling in three states, while Brazilian Oi cannot sell in five states. Together, the three carriers account for around 70% of the Brazilian mobile phone market. According to Anatel’s latest numbers, Vivo still leads the market with a 29.6% market share and more than 75.7 million mobile lines. TIM is second with just under 68.9 million mobile lines, followed by Claro with nearly 63 million and Oi with more than 47.7 million.
Claro announced on July 24 that it has presented its final action plan. The carrier was the first to release a plan, but Anatel considered it a draft. Claro has since modified the plan, adding the changes requested by the agency, including new traffic projections and actions to improve the operator’s performance. Previously, Anatel had requested a breakdown of Claro’s initial proposal to specify quality indicators by state and by month.
Claro stated that it is committed to ensuring transmission network quality and providing the capacity needed to meet demand during the 2014 World Cup, which will be held throughout Brazil and the 2016 Olympics Games set for Rio de Janeiro. That commitment includes the installation of a submarine cable linking the country to the United States, passing through Rio de Janeiro and Fortaleza.
The three suspended Brazilian telecom operators have to present action plans within 30 days detailing future investments to improve their services. Once the plans are approved, Anatel will authorize the resumption of mobile service sales. The impact of action plans on vendors was the subject of a previous story.
Anatel will make plans public, so the general population can follow how the carriers are investing and moving forward with their respective plans.
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