Telcos forced to deliver 80 percent of contracted broadband in Brazil
As of November, telecommunications companies operating in Brazil will be forced to deliver 80 percent of the average broadband speed contracted by customers.
This is part of a set of service quality rules for multimedia communications, set in 2012 by Anatel, the Brazilian telecommunications body, to stop companies from arbitrarily reducing speeds of residential and business broadband contracts.
Prior to that, companies would usually deliver about 10 percent of what had been promised on contract. Average Internet speed in Brazil lags behind the rest of the world: the country occupies the 89th position among 136 other countries considered in a recent research by Akamai.
At the time they were originally enforced, the rules determined that a minimum of 60 percent of the contracted speed should be provided. This has gone up to 70 percent last year and now the final stage sets the 80 percent bar.
Over the last few years, Anatel has been using a system of quality control of broadband speed, carried out min partnership with PwC and SamKnows, whereby devices connected to the modems of about 10,000 voluntary users perform random speed checks.
Anatel reports suggest that ever since these checks were introduced, speed delivery goals have been met in a lot more consistent manner.
The new rules of minimum broadband speed follows the news that telcos in Brazil are planning to end throttled mobile Internet connections and introduce additional fees to users that go over the limit of their data plans.