Spectrum management policies and universal access: The case of Brazil

This study analyses the relationship between the legal framework that underlies the policies on radiofrequency spectrum management and universal access to telecommunications in Brazil, particularly for isolated or low populated areas.

 

To this end, this work has been structured in topics suggested by an analysis of the sector's data (Chapter 2) and the consequent perception of the relevance of universalization policies for the expansion of the geographic availability of fixed telephony service and the projected backhauls for broadband connection. Despite the fact that both achievements are part of universal service goals, they contrast with the lack of broadband universalization policies directed to villages distant from municipal centres, and with the absence of universalization policies that guarantee the extension of individual access to telephony and broadband services in Brazil.

 

In chapter 3 we ascertain the scarcity of the backhaul bandwidth for towns of 20,000 inhabitants or less and the lack of purchasing power of the people from remote and scarcely populated regions for accessing currently available telephone services. Based on this we draw an opportunity framework for micro-providers, considering the importance of spectrum management  policies to the success of such initiatives (micro-providers, community networks and municipal projects oriented to enhancing the individual access to telecommunications’ services). In order to assess spectrum management policies, a list is made of the desired characteristics of an appropriate legal framework. This is then completed with relevant conclusions drawn from case studies on spectrum management policies directed at the introduction of competition in the local fixed telephony market.

 

Chapter 4 introduces the analysis of the current Brazilian legal framework on spectrum use, and contrasts it with the characteristics that are applicable to spectrum management policies and assigned to the opening of a competitive space for micro-providers and municipal or community networks. Chapters 5 and 6 present Brazilian case studies and their most controversial subjects concerning spectrum management policies oriented to universalization, the 450 MHz, 1.7 GHz, 1.8 GHz and 1.9 GHz bands. Finally, we propose regulatory alternatives to the legal framework for spectrum in Brazil, as a way of stimulating new models of low-cost telecommunications provision services for isolated or low populated areas.