TELEBRÁS

ISP & telecomvendors & products

Telecomunicações Brasileiras S.A.: the state holding that organized Brazil's telecom operators from 1972; the whole system - three fixed holdings, Embratel, and eight cellular holdings - was privatized in twelve auctions on 29 July 1998, the largest privatization in Brazilian history.

The monopoly era's name; its breakup is the hinge of Brazil's telecom timeline.

Telebras was the state holding company that owned Brazilian telecommunications, a system of operating companies under one federal roof, and for a quarter of a century it was simply how telephony existed in the country. Its breakup in July 1998 was among the largest privatizations attempted anywhere at the time.

The monopoly era is remembered for two things that sound contradictory and both happened. Telebras built genuine national infrastructure and funded serious research through its own centre, reaching places no commercial calculation would have reached. It also produced waiting lists measured in years and a line so scarce it was treated as an asset: people bought and sold telephone lines, and a residential line appeared on balance sheets as property.

The breakup replaced one problem with a different one. Competition and privatization ended the queue, put mobile telephony within reach of ordinary incomes, and transferred the network to operators answerable to shareholders rather than to a ministry. It also required inventing a referee where none had existed, which is why Anatel arrives at the same moment. Everything about Brazilian telecom regulation since is downstream of that year.

Also known as: Telecomunicações Brasileiras, Sistema Telebrás

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