Telecom rules reduce abusive calls in Brazil

Anatel, the National Telecommunications Agency of Brazil, recently reported progress in reducing the number of abusive calls. The agency credits the improvement to several actions they took in recent years. Let’s have a look.

Actions taken so far

It’s interesting to compare notes to see how regulators in other countries enact rules to protect consumers from abusive calls. Here’s a list of actions taken by the Brazilian regulator:

• Created a code of conduct for telecommunications.
• Deployed telephone code 0303 to be used by telemarketers.
• Launched a series of “precautionary measures”:
  • The First Precautionary Measure addressed 26 telecommunications providers with a mandate to limit short calls—calls with a duration of less than three seconds—to 100 per day, per number.
  • The Second Precautionary Measure extended the First Precautionary Measure with measures of efficiency, transparency, and a ranking of major offenders.
  • The Third Precautionary Measure extended the First and Second Precautionary Measures to all telecommunications companies.

Results

Anatel reported the following results from June 2022 through July 2023:

• 41% reduction in short calls.
• 582 companies were blocked for violating limits set in the precautionary measures.
  • 126 of these blocked companies signed terms of commitment to comply with the limits.
• 2,778 numbering resources now use the numbering code 0303.

Future actions

• Sanctioning proceedings are underway against telecommunications and teleservice companies and their contractors.
• STIR/SHAKEN implementation in Brazilian telephone networks by the end of 2023, with call authentication expected to begin in January 2024.
  • The Anatel report describes STIR/SHAKEN as a solution to present calls to consumers with the dialer number, identification, name, and logo. This suggests that Rich Call Data will be used.
  • A centralized solution has been contracted.

For more information, see Anatel presents an assessment of the fight against abusive calls (in Portuguese—some browsers support automatic translation, e.g., Google Chrome and Microsoft Edge).

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