The quality of mobile telephone services was discussed in the Committee on Consumer Protection Hearing on Tuesday 18. The law coordinator for Department of Consumer Protection and Defense—DPDC (Ministry of Justice), Amaury Martins Oliva, stated in a hearing at Chamber that considering the quality of mobile telephone services in Brazil, consumers pay a lot for a bad product.

Such matter is somewhat supported by a research from the International Telecommunication Union (ITU), which indicated Brazil as the country who pays the forth more expensive charge worldwide.

Representatives, however, of the National Telecommunications Agency of (Anatel) and telephony operators asserted that the market prices are lower compared to the research.

Divergent data
According to the general manager on the Comunicações Terrestres da Superintendência de Serviços Privados (Terrestrial Communications to Manage Private Services) of Anatel, Nelson Mitsuo, and the director of the Associação Brasileira de Telecomunicações—Telebrasil (Brazilian Telecommunications Association), Eduardo Levy, the research was based on basic plans of operators, except for offers.

According to Levy, the value of minute actually charged from consumer is 30% lower than the price stated by ITU. Mitsuo emphasised that the prepaid telephone services was not mentioned by ITU. ‘Prepaid mobile telephone is a public telephone for pocket; this way, a person can make reverse-charges calls or pay until R$ 0.05, he stated.

Eduardo Levy said also that operators in Brazil record profits lower than the global average and criticised tax burdens imposed to the sector which, according to him, rise the charges collected. ‘Telephony pays more taxes than cigarette and perfumes. Every R$ 100.00 in services provided, R$ 40.00 are taxes’, he criticised.

The deputy Dimas Ramalho (PPS-SP) used irony for the negative image showed by the director of Telebrasil. ‘Since the effective prices are lower than the ones for the research, tax burden is high and markup is low; therefore, does it mean that telephony is a terrible business?’, questioned the representative.

Complaint ranking
Amaury Martins understands that prices collected by operators should be assessed based on quality of the services provided. He stressed that mobile telephony operators are at the top of complaints regarding the bodies of consumer protection.

‘In general, the service is expensive and there is a drop for consumers’ expectation concerning both services promised by operators and services provided’, criticised Amaury. According to him, four of the 10 companies that are at the top of complaints for the bodies of consumer protection are mobile telephony operators.

The director of Telebrasil stated that the quantity of complaints is low comparing it to total of operators’ consumers (238 million). He also stressed that operators have been working hard to meet clients better. ‘Absolute numbers for complaints are high; assessed proportionally, such numbers drop’, said Levy.

The representative of DPDC, however, said that the body already compared the quantity of complaints regarding mobile telephone operators and financial companies, eg credit card operators which have a quantity of clients nearly similar. ‘People complaint against the telecommunication industry 85% more than the financial industry, which also have a huge quantity of consumers. Considering such both important information, we can compare the quality of services’, said Amaury.

Reporting – Carol Siqueira
Edition – Newton Araújo
Translation - Grupo Solucion-SP Language/Edgar Casadei