Brazilian telecoms regulator Anatel has ordered mobile operators Oi, TIM and Claro to stop selling new mobile plans. The measure follows rising consumer complaints about dropped calls and spotty coverage, Reuters reports. "A growing client base needs to be accompanied by more investments," says Anatel head Joao Batista de Resende, adding that the regulator had tracked growing customer service complaints for over a year.
According to Anatel, in each of Brazil's 26 states plus the federal district of Brasilia, the company with the poorest service would be unable to sell new plans. The suspension will remain in place until the operators come up with an investment plan to improve service quality. TIM will be prohibited from selling new plans in 19 states. Oi will be barred from selling in five states and sales by Claro are banned in three states.
The remaining operators, including Telefonica Brasil, will not have its sales suspended, but must present plans within 30 days to improve service or face sanctions. Operators violating the sales bans will be fined BRL 200,000 (approximately USD 99,000) per day.
TIM was "quite surprised by such an extreme measure," the company said in a release, calling the sales suspension "disproportional" and "anti-competitive", while Oi called the regulator's analysis "out-of-date", citing its plan to increase investments to BRL 6 billion this year, compared with BRL 5 billion in 2011 and BRL 3 billion in 2010.
