According to Pedro Jaime, head of telecommunications services at the Communications Ministry, the Government plans to discuss unbundling rules with the incumbent local exchange carriers (ILECs) before the deadline for proposing new contractual terms and conditions. He says unbundling is considered one of the best ways to foster competition in the last mile everywhere in the world. ?The Brazilian telecommunications model is based on the need for full, fair and free competition. Everyone knows and wants that, including the companies that are lobbying to keep their markets closed. We want to regulate competition in greater detail,? he says.
Time frame
Pedro Jaime believes the spread of wireless services can drive more effective competition in direct access for users currently served at an addordable cost by the fixed-line network. Thus in the medium term technological development will contribute to competition in telephony and other services. In the near term, however, tough attitudes must be taken to foster competition, he says. The law already provides for all possible technical modalities. Only a few rules and regulations are needed in one or two areas for competition to be effective.
?The reason many people are surprised by the Government?s policy in this area is that the last communications minister to formulate policy for telecommunications was Sérgio Motta, six years ago. Confusion set in because in the absence of day-to-day policy guidelines, Anatel took upon itself the job that should have been done by the ministry. I don?t blame Anatel for that because the power vacuum had to be filled,? Pedro Jaime says. ?It?s different now. This Government was elected to formulate policies and that?s what we?re going to do.?
