The long-awaited end of charges for roaming between Brazil and Chile is not happening after all – or at least not yet.
Initially scheduled for January, charge-free international roaming between Brazil and Chile has now been postponed until July.
The decision came on the deadline for the implementation of the commitment – 25 January. It was communicated to regulator Anatel by the Ministry of Foreign Affairs (MRE). An extension until 25 July was apparently in response to a proposal made by the Chilean Ministry of Foreign Affairs, though some media sources suggest it was a joint decision from the diplomatic delegations of both countries
An end to roaming charges was proposed in a free trade agreement signed between Brazil and Chile in late 2018 and enacted in 2022. It means that mobile operators and MVNOs offering an international roaming service to people from one country passing through another must charge the same tariffs and prices charged in the service plan in the user’s home country. This applies to calls, SMS and mobile data usage.
Now, of course, this in hold. However, it sems that an operational manual for the implementation of the rules by Brazilian operators, which has been approved by Anatel's Board of Directors, will not need changing.
As we noted earlier this month, the decree making this agreement effective was published almost a year ago, on 26 January 2022. What caused the delay has not been explained. However, we will need to wait until July to see what happens next.
