ANATEL CONFLICTS RESOLUTION: THE NETWORK INTERCONNECTION PROBLEM

Abstract

Telecommunications play an essential role in the information society and, consequently, in everyday social life. The technological changes and the emerging of increasingly diversified and modern services promote a global discussion about the need for structural and legal political changes in the sector. Among countries, such as Brazil, which have choosen for broad basic services privatization processes there was a convergence towards the creation of regulatory bodies that could give greater autonomy or powers to existing ones, encouraging and strengthening regulatory agencies. In the national case, the regulatory agencies come from a political-ideological conjuncture of privatization articulated during the 1990s and inspired by the North American model. In this study, the National Telecommunications Agency – ANATEL, was created to flexibilize the telecommunication sector, which is currently struggling to democratize communication in the country and defend the consumers’ rights. It also raises the discussion about the agency's actions in resolving conflicts of interest generated in the networks interconnection between concessionaires, an issue that directly underlies the value and quality of telecommunications services offered to users.