RIO DE JANEIRO, BRAZIL – Brazil’s government will pardon about half of the roughly R$14 billion (US$2.6 billion) in fines owed to its regulatory agency ANATEL by Brazilian telecom firm Oi SA, the country’s federal solicitor general (AGU) said on Friday, November 28th.
Oi, which has been working to emerge from bankruptcy protection for years, had accumulated gargantuan fines tied to quality of services and other regulatory demands, making telecoms regulator Anatel one of the company’s biggest creditors.
The settlement, with the remainder of Oi’s government debt payable in installments, puts an end to 1,700 ongoing court cases between Oi and Anatel, said the AGU.