en.Wedoany.com Reported - Brazil's National Telecommunications Agency (Anatel) emphasized during a hearing at the Senate's Science, Technology, Innovation, and Information Committee (CCT) that data centers are critical infrastructure and foundational pillars of Brazil's digital ecosystem.

The hearing, held this Tuesday (9th), was the fourth in a series of meetings for Bill PL 3018/2024, which aims to establish rules for artificial intelligence data centers. Senator Vanderlan Cardoso (Social Democratic Party/Goiás), the bill's rapporteur, stated that the Senate will hold two more meetings on the topic before submitting the report.

Nilo Pasquali, an alternate commissioner representing Anatel in the discussions, presented a white paper from the agency identifying data centers as key infrastructure for the digital economy. "They are the foundation for AI, 5G, and all cloud and digital services," he said.

Pasquali argued that Brazil should reduce its external dependence on digital infrastructure and create conditions to attract investments to expand domestic data processing and storage capacity, while also promoting infrastructure decentralization.

He also pointed out to participants that legislation should clearly distinguish between general-purpose data centers and those built specifically for AI needs, such as large-scale model training and massive inference, which have more specific regulatory requirements.

Anatel reminded attendees that "data centers are only relevant if they have embedded connectivity." The commissioner mentioned that the agency is working on this issue and discussing minimum requirements for the operation of these structures, divided into five areas: operational continuity, physical security, cybersecurity, energy efficiency, and environmental compliance.

Also participating in the discussions were government representatives—from the Ministry of Science, Technology, and Innovation (MCTI) and the Ministry of Finance—as well as the National Confederation of Industry (CNI), the National Bank for Economic and Social Development (BNDES), and Nvidia. All parties reached a consensus on the strategic importance of data centers.

Carlos Colombo, project director at the Secretariat for Economic Reform of the Ministry of Finance, linked the topic to the Ecological Transformation Plan and Redata, emphasizing the need for conditional tax incentives, with conditions covering sustainability, local development, reserving computing capacity for the domestic market, and investments in Research, Development, and Innovation (RD&I).

Inácio Calache Cozendey, policy and industry expert at the National Confederation of Industry (CNI), noted that data centers are part of a broader industrial chain involving energy, cooling systems, infrastructure, and semiconductors. He argued that strengthening this sector could boost domestic industry and increase productivity.

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