BRAZIL LAW AND PRACTICE Contributed by: Ricardo Barretto Ferreira da Silva, Ingrid Bandeira Santos, Sylvia Werdmüller von Elgg Roberto and Isabella da Penha Lopes, Azevedo Sette Advogados
however, the provider should inform ANATEL prior to the start of any activities. For an authorisation to be granted, the provider should: • be organised in accordance with Brazilian laws, with its principal place of business and administration being in Brazil; • be able to contract with public authorities; • have the technical qualifications required to provide the service, good economic/financial standing and tax regularity; • be in good standing with the social security administration; and • not already be responsible for providing the same kind of service in the same location. An interested party must apply for authorisation through ANATEL’s information system, providing certain information and documents according to ANATEL Resolution No 720/2020. Prior notifica - tion to ANATEL regarding the services that will be provided is mandatory. The authorisation fee is BRL400 for community interest services and BRL20 for restricted-interest services. However, when the provision of community interest ser - vices can be impacted by many competitors, a bid might be required for the issuance of authori - sations. Additionally, the provider should comply with all specific conditions established by regulations applicable to the relevant telecommunications service, which requires a deep analysis. Services and solutions adding utilities to tele - communications services (eg, instant messaging ‒ communication between computers connected to the internet with no connection to telephony networks) are deemed VAS and are not subject to telecommunications rules. However, if they
amount to the provision of telecommunications services, ANATEL authorisation is required, and telecommunications regulations apply. Comput - er communication using voice-over-IP (VoIP) to connect with fixed/mobile phones, and VoIP ser - vices simultaneously originating and terminating communication with public telephony networks, are examples of this latter scenario. Moreover, communications products using the radio-electric spectrum for the propagation of information should comply with the applicable technical requirements, in addition to being cer - The Brazilian Internet Act establishes that the preservation and guarantee of net neutrality is one of the principles applicable to the use of the internet in Brazil. According to this Act, the party in charge of transmission, switching or routing shall process, in an isonomic manner, any data packages regardless of their content, origin and destination, service, terminal or application. This Act has an impact on the telecommunica - tions sector, prohibiting providers of internet connections from blocking, monitoring, filtering or analysing the content of data packages. However, Decree No 8,771/2016, which regu - lates the Act, covers exceptional circumstances in which discrimination or traffic degradation is admissible. Such measures, designed to maintain the net’s stability, security, integrity and functionality, might be taken if essential for the proper provision of services and applica - tions (eg, handling network security issues by restricting spam messages, as well as dealing with network congestion), provided those in charge of such measures abstain from caus - ing damage to users; act proportionately, with tified and homologated by ANATEL. 6.2 Net Neutrality Regulations
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