BRASILIA--TIM Participacoes SA (TSU, TIMP3.BR), Brazil's
second-biggest mobile-telephone-services provider by market share,
hopes to be able to resume as early as next week the sale of
contracts in states where the government has banned new sales.
Last week, Brazil's telecommunications regulator, Anatel,
imposed a ban on the sale of new mobile-phone contracts in certain
states by three providers: TIM, Oi SA (OIBR, OIBR4.BR), the
fourth-biggest provider by market share, and the Brazilian unit of
America Movil SAB (AMX, AMX.MX), known as Claro, No. 3.
The financial effect of the sales ban for TIM should be almost
"immaterial," said Franco Bernabe, chief executive of Telecom
Italia SpA (TI, TIT.MI), which controls TIM. The biggest impact has
been on the company's image and its share price, he added.
The Anatel ruling took effect Monday. Operators were given 30
days to present investment plans aimed at resolving customer
complaints. They face a fine of 200,000 Brazilian reais ($98,890)
per region for each day they are late.
Each of the three companies has since handed in its plans, and
Anatel asked all of them for more information, which the companies
expect to provide next week.
TIM's plan will redirect planned investment toward improving the
quality of the network and customer service, which were the biggest
areas of consumer complaints.
The reason quality declined, the company said, was that the
investment plan fell behind schedule because of organizational and
technical problems as well as difficulties related to two
acquisitions TIM made in a short period of time.
Write to Jeffrey T. Lewis at jeffrey.lewis@dowjones.com
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