Summary

  • Anatel’s expanded Android test lets a user reach Anatel Consumidor without spending mobile data; a prepaid user can do so with no credit if the line remains active.
  • The complaint procedure still starts with the provider’s own service protocol. Anatel expects to evaluate the pilot in early January 2027 before deciding on permanent use.

The mobile regulator has put a small but revealing experiment at its own front door. Anatel says its Android complaint app can now be used in a sponsored-data trial without deducting traffic from a customer’s allowance. A prepaid account with no credit can also enter. For a person trying to complain about a phone or Internet provider, the regulator is removing the price of the trip to the regulator.

The line still has to be active on the provider’s network. That is the precise hinge in this experiment. No prepaid credit and no active connection are different conditions. Anatel’s announcement promises the first, while expressly requiring the second. The test does not turn a disconnected handset into a working path to the complaint desk. It also applies to Android for now, although Anatel’s ordinary app is listed for Android and iOS.

There is a second gate before a formal complaint reaches Anatel. Its official service instructions require the consumer to contact the provider first and obtain a service protocol number. Once a complaint is registered, the provider has ten calendar days to answer. The new mobile-data arrangement changes the cost of using one digital channel; it does not erase the earlier provider contact. A customer whose prepaid balance has run dry may gain a route to check a case, but the paper trail still begins with the company being challenged.

Expanded real-use tests began on 22 October across Brazil’s federal units with the main mobile operators. Anatel is running the proof of concept with the federal data-processing service Serpro, under monitoring by the Ministry of Management and Innovation in Public Services. The agency expects results in early January 2027 and will then decide whether to adopt the arrangement permanently. It has not published a usage count or a breakdown of successful access by network, region, handset and credit status. Those measurements would show whether the door works where a data allowance or prepaid balance used to stop the customer.

Original records