Apple gets clearance to sell new iPhone models in Brazil

The Brazilian National Telecommunications Agency (Anatel) has granted the authorization needed for Apple to sell the iPhone 5s and iPhone 5c in the country.

Anatel is responsible for the homologation of telephony equipment, including mobile devices — which means that manufacturers can only sell such items in Brazil if they are scrutinized and approved by the agency beforehand.

The new Apple devices will be compatible with the 4G technology available in Brazil and work at the frequency adopted locally, which is 2600 MHz. The previous iPhone and iPad sold in Brazil operated in the 700 MHz band.

According to Anatel, the iPhones will be manufactured by Foxconn in the company's factory in São Paulo, in the countryside town of Jundiaí. However, the company is yet to announce the release date and the price of the devices.

While the bureaucracy around Anatel checks often means Brazilian consumers only get to see new smartphones a lot later than countries such as the US, there has been a slight improvement in terms of timescales.

Considering that the new iPhone models have only been launched last month, the clearance from the telecoms body came a lot faster than in the iPad Mini case, where the Brazil release only took place eight months after the initial launch.

Now I am looking forward to seeing the prices for the new devices. If the iPad mini example is anything to go by — when it launched earlier this year — the most basic version of the Apple tablet was 44.3 percent more expensive in Brazil in comparison to US prices.