On Thursday, November 7, the High Court (STJ) ruled that Embratel must pay Brasil Telecom interconnect charges (Detraf) owed for September 2002. Embratel had earlier won an injunction to avoid payment. Hearing the full case, the STJ overturned the injunction and ordered the long-distance carrier to pay. The debt is estimated at about 47 million Brazilian Reals (now some 13m US Dollars). Brasil Telecom had won an order determining payment from a lower court, but Embratel?s injunction suspended the obligation until the hearing. The two companies are also in litigation over non-payment of interconnect charges by Embratel for the period May 2000-August 2002. This debt amounts to 252.7m BRL.
Interconnection
