Brazilian telecoms regulator Anatel yesterday voted in favour of allowing domestically owned Oi SA and TIM Participacoes (TIM Brasil), the Brazilian subsidiary of Telecom Italia, to share infrastructure for the provision of 4G Long Term Evolution (LTE) services. As a result, the pair will be allowed to share towers, transmission equipment and broadcast stations, Anatel said, adding: ‘The authorisation does no harm to competition and may, by promoting lower costs for the companies, bring actual benefits to consumers.’
In January 2013 TeleGeography’s CommsUpdate reported that TIM Brasil and Oi SA had announced plans to share 4G networks in the country, to allow them to offer ultra-high speed cellular services in the host cities for the FIFA Confederations Cup (Copa das Confederacoes) – Belo Horizonte, Brasilia, Fortaleza, Recife, Rio de Janeiro and Salvador. In a joint statement on 18 January, the two carriers said the decision to share the deployment of LTE network infrastructure will yield savings of between 40%-60%, enabling them to be more competitive against other mobile carriers. At the time they said that the new services are expected to be ready in April, in time for testing ahead of the football tournament which kicks off in June 2013.