Brazil telecom watchdog steps up fight against spam calls

As of November 3, a 15-day block will be imposed on companies making at least 100 thousand short calls in one day with a single access code or those making upwards of 100 thousand daily calls with short ones exceeding 85 percent of them. Short calls are those not completed, or disconnected in up to three seconds.

The move aims to step up the punishment against telemarketing harassment and was announced by Brazil’s national telecom authority Anatel on Monday (Oct. 18).

The watchdog also stipulated that operators have 60 days to build a public platform for customers to check which company is making the calls. The page must provide the firm’s corporate name and registration number (CNPJ) and say which service provider was acquired and the access code used.

Once every month, Anatel will publish the list of the short-call makers, based on the cross-referencing of data from service providers. The list is expected to allow people to watch for the companies behind this type of call. Corporations not complying with the norms may be fined up to BRL 50 million.

Anatel should release a provisional measure with the new rules in the next few days, to be valid until April 30, 2023.

In July, the agency had ordered the blocking of abusive automatic calls. The new text, Anatel reported, aims to increase the transparency regarding firms engaging in telemarketing harassment.