Whirlwind of meetings between today and tomorrow for Telecom Italia to unravel the Brazil node, which through Tim Brasil represents one of the group's most important growth engines. Today a face-to-face meeting between the top management of the Brazilian subsidiary el'Anatel, the Supervisory Authority. Tomorrow the hot potato will be managed directly by the president of Telecom Italia, Franco Bernabe who will meet the president of Anatel, João Batista de Resende, and the Minister of Communications Paulo Bernardo.
Telecom's Brazilian plans are on the table. In fact, Anatel is asking Tim Brasil (but also other Claro and Oi operators) to improve the network after problems related to network services and customer complaints monitored for over a year, which the Authority has attributed to lack of investments. “A growing client base must come with more investment,” de Resende said. For this reason, last week it decided to block, starting yesterday and until the plan is presented, the sale of new rate plans by Tim Brasil in 19 (but not São Paulo) out of 27 states of the South American country (just as it blocked the sales in some states of the other two operators, five Oi and three Claro). For his part, Tim Brasil underlined that in the last four years he has invested around 3 billion reais a year in the network and that in the next three years he has already planned investments of 9 billion real. She also pointed out that she was the only one to sell "unlocked" mobile phones, ie not necessarily linked to an operator, a sign that customers choose to stay with Tim.
Last evening the Court of Brasilia rejected Tim Brasil's appeal against Anatel's decision. “Over the past two years, the deterioration in the quality of mobile phone services in the country is evident and well known – said federal judge Tales Krauss Queiroz – There is nothing illegal in the conduct of the supervisory agency, the suspension of sales is proportional to the problem raised”. Of course, the sentence also attributes the "part of the blame" to the "political power" for the excess of bureaucracy that has slowed down the growth of the network and therefore calls for a "compromise, intermediate and balanced solution that brings together the economic objectives of the telecommunications company with consumer aspirations” to a quality service. Thus for analysts it is probable that Telecom Italia will arrive at one compromise solution, anticipating part of the three-year investment plan of 3 billion reais a year. The markets are awaiting the outcome of the game and the Telecom Italia share is traveling prudently down by -1,36% (-2,10% for the Ftse Mib).
