Reuters: Regulatory News: UPDATE 1-Brazil carriers face penalties for poor service

Reuters: Regulatory News Reuters.com is your source for breaking news, business, financial and investing news, including personal finance and stocks. Reuters is the leading global provider of news, financial information and technology solutions to the world's media, financial institutions, businesses and individuals. // via fulltextrssfeed.com

UPDATE 1-Brazil carriers face penalties for poor service Jul 18th 2012, 19:40 Wed Jul 18, 2012 3:40pm EDT * Regulator source: penalties vary, may include suspension * Anatel to take punitive measures against four carriers By Leonardo Goy BRASILIA, July 18 (Reuters) - Brazilian telecom regulator Anatel will take punitive measures against four mobile phone carriers, including the suspension of sales for some of the providers, following consumer complaints over dropped calls and other problems, a source at the regulator said on Wednesday. Anatel is ready to take punitive measures against TIM Participações, Grupo Oi, America Móvil's Claro brand and Telefónica Brasil's mobile unit Vivo, said the source, who declined to be named because of the sensitivity of the issue. Some companies will see sales of new mobile plans suspended in certain states, the source said, without providing further details. "We will impose tough measures," said the source. "It's a decision for each carrier, and in some cases we will suspend sales of new plans." Anatel was scheduled to hold a news conference later Wednesday. The move, if confirmed, would hand consumers in Latin America's largest economy a victory after years of complaints of poor service were offset by strong lobbying by telecoms, e-commerce retailers and financial services companies. The measures may also force phone companies to further accelerate capital spending to reach a growing consumer class spread across Brazil. TIM shares accelerated losses late in the afternoon to a 2.3 percent drop. Oi's common shares fell 2.5 percent and Telefonica Brasil fell 0.5 percent to 48.88 reais. Newspaper Folha de S. Paulo first reported Anatel's plans to punish carriers in a report to its website on Wednesday. A spokeswoman for Anatel could neither confirm nor deny the newspaper's report when asked for comment on the matter. Link this Share this Digg this Email Reprints

You are receiving this email because you subscribed to this feed at blogtrottr.com. If you no longer wish to receive these emails, you can unsubscribe from this feed, or manage all your subscriptions