Earlier this week, telecom giants Vivo and TIM announced they are interested in acquiring mobile operations belonging to Oi, the country’s fourth-largest telecom operator. For cash-strapped Oi, selling assets is a silver lining; but it may have deep implications for the sector as a whole in Brazil.
Oi Telecom is still grappling with the aftermath of its BRL 65 billion court-supervised reorganization process—only recently overtaken by conglomerate Odebrecht as Brazil’s biggest ever. As of 2019, Oi announced a plan to fully revamp its operations and financial structure, aiming to shift its focus on Fiber-to-the-Home (FTTH) internet and raising...