Uncategorized More than 3 million non-approved handsets are withdrawn from circulation by ANATEL.

The year 2021 brought a heavy blow to the piracy of telecommunications products in Brazil. Throughout the year, the National Telecommunications Agency (ANATEL) removed approximately 3.3 million of irregular equipments from the market. This number is the highest since 2018, the year in which the PACP (Action Plan to Combat Piracy) was created. During these four years, ANATEL seized, sealed or retained 4.2 million products, resulting in an estimated value of R$475 million.

Restricted radiation equipment was the type of product with the highest number of items withdrawn from the market. In this category are headphones, speakers, microphones, wireless keyboards, smartwatches and wireless mouses, with just over a million products. In second place are battery chargers, with 951 thousand items and TV Boxes – devices that offer hundreds of channels and paid services for free – resulting in 805 thousand products.

In this scenario, most of the products removed from circulation, around 2.9 million, were in ports, airports, distribution centers of the Post Office and couriers. You can look up all these numbers by accessing the PACP Dashboard. On this platform, every citizen has access to the results of the actions against piracy developed by ANATEL, being able to follow the progress of the plan.

The importance of homologation of telecommunication devices

Created in 2018, the Action Plan to Combat Piracy strengthened ANATEL’s performance in combating the sale and use of non-approved telecommunications equipment. But what is the problem with products without approval? As they have not been tested and approved by ANATEL, there is no guarantee of safety and quality for consumers, such as, for example, cell phones that heat up and can combust, interference in aeronautical communications and slow internet connection.

Therefore, it is mandatory to perform the tests provided for in the Certification and Homologation procedures for telecommunications products. Health, safety and assistance tests ensure adequate levels of electrical safety and radiofrequency emissions, in addition to offering technical assistance in the country.

As for quality tests, technical standardization favors the control of radio frequencies, ensuring communications, especially for emergency services. Approved equipment promotes a competitive, fair and healthy environment, encouraging investments in research and development by manufacturers and suppliers.

Data Dashboards

On January 20th, the 2018 and 2019 history of the Action Plan to Combat Piracy was included in the PACP Dashboard, which was included in another system, now together with the 2020 and 2021. ANATEL provides a series of panels with graphs, maps, segmented data and spreadsheets that can be useful for consumers, companies, consultancies, public bodies and press vehicles. Currently, data are available on 16 topics. Access and learn more.

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