Age of Unlimited Broadband Is Over, Says ANATEL President

04/19/2016 - 09h34

The age of unlimited broadband internet in Brazil is over, said João Resende, president of the National Telecommunications Agency (ANATEL) on Monday (18).

According to ANATEL, there is no way broadband service providers can continue to offer services without any data limit. This is likely to see them move towards a model involving limited data packages, similar to that used by providers of mobile internet access.

Resende said that data usage has grown rapidly in recent years, thanks mainly to the use of video transmission services, such as YouTube and Netflix, as well as online gaming.

The main companies in the sector have already begun to move towards a model of limited packages.

Last Thursday, minister of communications André Figueiredo, called on ANATEL to take action in order to ensure that companies honor their contracts with consumers. Figueiredo is concerned that companies will begin to apply data limits without warning their customers beforehand.

On social networks, internet users have been campaigning against the introduction of data limits.

When asked about the future of the business, most of Brazil's main telecommunications companies simply affirmed that they do not currently operate data limits.

Oi said it would not adopt any firm stance, but that it still does not operate a limited data model. Vivo, meanwhile, which introduced data limits on contracts signed from February this year, said that it is not suspending services.

TIM Brasil said that it currently does not sell plans with a monthly data limit and that it has no plans to change its current offers. Algar Telecom, which covers cities in the Triângulo Mineiro (an area in the west of the state of Minas Gerais), emphasized that its plans are unlimited.

NET, one of the market leaders in broadband internet, said that there has not been any change to its broadband packages which are currently available.

Translated by TOM GATEHOUSE

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