Below you'll find a list of all posts that have been tagged as “Brazil”
Author: Ricardo Tavares
Published: 2019-05-27
Twenty-years ago Brazil signed a space-technology safeguard agreement (TSA) with the United States. It was intended to be a preamble for American companies to launch satellites from Brazil’s Alcântara Space Center, well-positioned at 2.3 degrees south of the Equator where heavy loads can be lifted off with fuel savings and better angles. The agreement went for approval in the Brazilian …
Author: Ricardo Tavares
Published: 2019-01-14
“We had no other option–we had no money,” Luciano Rezende told me when I asked him why he started a smart-city program in his town. Mr. Rezende is the Mayor of Vitória, a beautiful island-city of 400,000 people and the state capital of Espírito Santo in Southeast Brazil. He took office in 2013 during a severe fiscal crisis. The city …
Author: Ricardo Tavares
Published: 2017-06-19
The Economist magazine recently claimed data is now more valuable than oil. While data monetization is driving a new “gold rush,” there’s something else happening reminiscent of the financial impact of the oil industry, the rising importance of data communications equipment in the trade deficits of a large number of countries. Imports of electronics equipment—communications infrastructure, devices, data-center equipment and …
Author: Ricardo Tavares
Published: 2016-09-02
Since enacting its General Telecommunications Law (Law 9.472) on July 16, 1997 Brazil has developed an over-regulated telecom policy regime. Evidence of the regulatory over-stretch became clear when telecom operator Oi filed for bankruptcy protection last June. This $19bn bankruptcy case is the largest in Brazilian history. A new bill before Congress aims to amend the existing regulations by changing …
Author: Marc Schryer
Published: 2015-08-11
Since TechPolis’ recently-published research note, How to Grow M2M in Brazil, new data on M2M connections in the country has become available from Brazilian telecoms regulator, Anatel. The statistical update, the first since January 2015, was released on July 17, 2015 and provides a full year of M2M data with breakdowns by tax classification. In September 2014, when federal activation …
Author: Marc Schryer
Published: 2015-04-27
A new tax policy, introduced in Brazil last September, with the aim of giving selected Machine-to-Machine (M2M) applications a tax break, has already had a noticeable impact according to data from telecoms regulator Anatel. The 80% tax break reduces the initial activation fee from $15.07 to $3.05. The reduction also applies to the ongoing annual operation federal tax. The high …
Author: Ricardo Tavares
Published: 2014-08-04
There has been a great deal said about the impact of technology on politics. According to one (seriously flawed) argument the Arab Spring was “created” by Google and social networks. A more valid point notes the Internet has profoundly changed the political campaigning landscape in democratic countries. It is also true political dissidents have used the Internet to mobilize anti-government …
Author: Ricardo Tavares
Published: 2014-06-13
Late last year, the Brazilian Senate Commission on Foreign Relations asked TechPolis to prepare a paper on cyber security. Against the backdrop of Edward Snowden’s revelations of U.S. espionage in Brazil, the Senate created a Special Investigative Commission (in Portuguese, CPI) to analyze the status of cyber security in the country and suggest new directions. Now the work of the …
Author: Ricardo Tavares
Published: 2014-05-28
Mobile operators around the world are expected to make, on average, less than $4 a year in revenue per M2M connection thanks to the small amounts of data processed. This will mean emerging markets with activation taxes (sometimes called SIM-card tax) will find it difficult to truly benefit from the Internet of Things (IoT). Many applications will simply not be …
Author: Philipe Moura
Published: 2014-05-02
The Judiciary is today the main regulator of data privacy and protection in Brazil. Will legislation fill the gaps any time soon? The question of protecting users’ privacy and regulating information security is becoming paramount for policymakers as insurmountable amounts of private data go online. Users want guaranteed privacy rights, and companies want to develop their business models based on …
Author: Ricardo Tavares
Published: 2014-03-18
Brazil was one of the very first countries anywhere to introduce legislation specific to M2M communications, and as a result gained global attention amongst connected-car aficionados. It introduced two significant policies of global significance: In 2006, Congress passed Legislation, endorsed by former President Lula da Silva, stipulating that every car coming out of Brazil's automobile manufacturing plants should have a …
Author: Philipe Moura
Published: 2014-03-10
Brazil is the top 5th IT market. But it is losing leadership to Chile in Latam. Check out what needs to be done. Cloud computing is a business model rather than a specific technology. All the key elements to make it successful (broadband, computing architectures, and e-commerce) are now readily available. From the simplest Software as a Service (SaaS) products …