Brazil’s Administrative Council for Economic Defence (Conselho Administrativo de Defesa Economica, CADE) has approved the takeover of the CEMIG Telecom assets acquired by Algar Telecom in August this year. As previously reported by TeleGeography’s CommsUpdate, Algar offered BRL78 million (USD20.5 million) for ‘Lot 2’ of the assets auctioned by Brazilian state-run utility Companhia Energetica de Minas Gerais (CEMIG); these included infrastructure in Ceara, Bahia, Pernambuco, Goias and Belo Horizonte. The approval was granted without restriction. American Tower paid BRL571 million for ‘Lot 1’ of the assets, which comprised infrastructure in Minas Gerais, Sao Paulo and Rio de Janeiro; CADE approved this transaction last month.
In other news, the National Telecommunications Agency (Agencia Nacional de Telecomunicacoes, Anatel) has launched a consultation relating to the renewal of the operating concessions held by regional operator Sercomtel. The consultation was approved on 4 October and will run for 30 days. The watchdog has stressed that this is a standard process and does not mean that the telco will necessarily forfeit its licences, which include 800MHz and 1800MHz cellular frequencies.