Brazil's telecoms regulator Anatel published a set of board decisions in the Diário Oficial da União on 19 October 2026. Two of them matter for the country's largest operators.
TIM and I-Systems
In Acórdão No. 277, signed on 16 October, Anatel's board unanimously approved the incorporation of I-Systems Soluções de Infraestrutura S.A. into TIM S.A. It also transferred I-Systems' licence to provide restricted-interest and collective-interest telecoms services to TIM.
The approval comes with conditions:
- TIM must show it is up to date with federal taxes, FGTS (the employee severance fund) and amounts owed to Anatel;
- TIM must pay the public price for the licence transfer;
- the incorporation can only take place after the transfer is published in the official gazette;
- the approval is valid for 180 days, extendable once, and TIM must send Anatel copies of the corporate documents within 60 days of registration.
I-Systems is a fibre infrastructure business. Bringing it inside TIM simplifies the operator's ownership of its fixed network assets.
Claro's fine goes up on appeal
In Acórdão No. 270 of 13 October, the board partly upheld an appeal by Claro S.A. against a sanction under Brazil's customer service rules (DSAC). It ordered certain infringements to be weighed differently and limited one infringement to the state of Pernambuco.
However, the board also reviewed the case on its own initiative. It reduced the "damage" factor from 3 to 2, removed a 50% mitigating factor and reclassified some infringements from medium to serious. The net result is that the fine rose rather than fell.
The board also rejected appeals by Telbrax, Neovia, FCA Fiat Chrysler Participações Brasil and Telepisa Celular.
The lesson for operators
The Claro case shows that appealing an Anatel sanction carries risk: the board can reassess the whole penalty, not just the points the operator raised.
Why it matters financially
- Claro: the fine increased from R$17,620,191.04 to R$25,917,521.54, an increase of about R$8.3 million.
- TIM/I-Systems: no transaction value or transfer price was stated in the published decision. TIM must pay the public price for the licence transfer, but the amount was not reported.