Anatel signed this Thursday (22/12) the renewal of concession contracts with fixed telephone companies. Federal judge Jirair Aram Meguerian, from the Federal Regional Court of the 1st Region, suspended on Wednesday night the injunction that prevented the signing of the contracts. Meguerian understood that the abrupt suspension of the contract would constitute a breach of public order. The signing of the concession contract had been suspended because the Court understood that important rules in the contract had not been edited. The new contract signed provides for charging for landline calls by minutes and no longer by pulse. Consumer protection ociations claim that the change will weigh heavily on the pockets of service users.
Meguerian stated that if the concession were not extended, the rights and duties relating to the provision of fixed telephone services would return to the Union on January 1, 2006. Therefore, according to the judge, the abrupt suspension would cause “chaos in the fixed telephone services throughout the country”, as the State would not be prepared to ume this responsibility. The decision also took into Estonia Email List account the economic shock, and the damage to the administrative order, which would be “severely shaken by creating a Regulatory Agency and other public administration bodies in just 12 days”. The decision revoked Judge Antonio Corrêa, from the 9th Federal Court of Justice in the Federal District, had suspended the signing of the Anatel contract and the decision had been confirmed by the TRF of the 1st Region.
The judge accepted the arguments of lawyer Flávia Lefèvre Guimarães — who represents engineers Ruy Bottesi and Marcelo Peral Rengel in the Popular Action — that Anatel failed to edit important rules in the concession contract that would result in a real increase in the consumer's monthly bill. According to the judge, important regulations for competition were also not made, such as number portability, that is, the possibility for consumers to change operator without having to change their telephone number. The market competition plan was also awaiting regulation, in addition to modifying contract clauses such as the readjustment of the basic subscription, which allows a real increase every year of up to 5% in addition to monetary correction. According to Flávia Lefèvre Guimarães, the General Telecommunications Law provides for the end of the privatization process in December and extends the concessions for a period of 20 years.
