en.Wedoany.com Reported - Brazil's NEO Association has once again opposed the RAN sharing agreement signed between TIM and Vivo, filing a petition with the board of the National Telecommunications Agency (Anatel) requesting the rejection of the operators' new request to amend the supplementary terms of the agreement. The association argues that the operators' proposal exceeds the scope of operational adjustments and represents a change to the business scope already reviewed by the Administrative Council for Economic Defense (Cade).

In its petition, the NEO Association pointed out that approving any changes at this stage of the proceedings would jeopardize the legal certainty of the competition decision and set a regulatory precedent. The association argues that Cade has already evaluated the transaction and issued a final ruling, and the scope of the RAN sharing agreement under Anatel's review can no longer be altered. Doing so would artificially create a "new fact" that Telefônica and TIM could use to circumvent or override Cade's final decision, and potentially even the Concentration Control Agreement (ACC) they signed.

The statement was submitted after the operators filed a public version of a previous petition with Anatel. The document mentions that the new request involves changes related to the 2G/3G network sharing contract and the 4G Single Grid contract.

A significant portion of the petition discusses the operators' request to replace the so-called "integration frontier" (now renamed "optimization frontier") cities in the Single Grid contract. As previously reported by media outlet Tele.Síntese, the new request involves replacing the originally stipulated 407 cities with other cities deemed a priority by the operators. The association assesses that this change modifies the business scope initially reviewed by the authorities.

The NEO Association believes the issue lies not only in the replacement of locations but also in the timing of the replacement. If the parties wish to change the object of a specific agreement, the only possible and acceptable path is to submit a new request to Cade and Anatel for proper review by these bodies. The association insists that Anatel should not permit changes that could alter a transaction that has already undergone final competition review at Cade.

Another argument raised by NEO is that Cade's decision should serve as the minimum reference for Anatel's regulatory review. The association claims that the antitrust authority recognized the relevant competition risks and, precisely for this reason, conditioned the approval of the transaction on the signing of the ACC. The association argues that Cade's decision should be considered by Anatel as the "baseline" for its own decision, and cannot allow a precedent to be set for the agency to "revive" decisions already in effect before other competent public bodies. The document also mentions that the voting conclusion approving the transaction at Cade found that the justifications presented by TIM and Telefônica were insufficient to eliminate the competition concerns identified during the procedural investigation.

The association also questioned the fact that the new list of cities was not publicly disclosed, noting that transparency is one of the requirements imposed by Cade in the ACC.

In addition to requesting the rejection of the new request, NEO also asked the board to fully uphold Analysis Report No. 75/2025, drafted by Commissioner Vicente Aquino. The petition emphasizes that the voting identified risks such as coordination among competitors, reduced competitive incentives, entry barriers, and potential impacts on spectrum usage. The association also reiterated the rapporteur's understanding of the need to prevent private frequency reorganization outside the agency-led process. According to the petition, reallocations that conflict with the formal reorganization process established by Anatel are unacceptable, citing excerpts from Vicente Aquino's analysis report.

The association also supports restricting RAN sharing agreements between operators with Significant Market Power (SMP) in cities with populations not exceeding 100,000, arguing that the measure protects the competition stimulated by the 5G auction.

In concluding its statement, NEO requested the board to reject the new requests submitted by TIM and Telefônica. According to the association, Anatel should fully approve Analysis Report No. 75/2025/VA, maintain the restrictions proposed by rapporteur Vicente Aquino, and reject the operators' request based on the legal impossibility of modifying the scope of the RAN sharing agreement's supplementary terms at this procedural stage. The rapporteur for the case, Edson Holanda, requested in May that the technical department investigate the matter, with findings to be submitted by September, at which point the board should resume discussions.