Insider

Brazilian antitrust officials greenlight sale of Oi mobile assets

oi telecom deal
Photo: Rafapress/Shutterstock

With some restrictions, Brazil’s antitrust agency Cade approved the sale of Oi Telecom’s mobile telephony assets to its three main competitors Vivo, TIM, and Claro — as we reported in today’s edition of the Brazil Daily newsletter. The watchdog greenlit the deal despite prosecutors’ concerns about market concentration, as Brazil will now have only three nationwide mobile operators.

Among the requirements imposed by Cade include the need to rent part of mobile frequency bands to other companies and sell base stations (receivers/transmitters that serve as hubs for local wireless networks).

The deal, valued at USD 3.1 billion, is key to prevent Oi from going bankrupt after years under court-supervised recovery. Still, it further narrows a market that is already highly concentrated. Vivo, TIM, and Claro will control 97 percent of the mobile telephony market in the country.