Política de serviço universal e liberalização das telecomunicações

Resumo

The objective of this text is to analyse the universal service of telefony
in the tradicional telecommunications model and the new challanges
branght about in a competitive enviromment. Based on the normative and
economic dimensions, it brings back the discussion of this fundamental
princeple: the right for all the people to enjoy the telecommunication
services, producing a connterpoint to the course of radical changes in
this sector. It discusses also the need of updating the restricted and static
notion of universal service, limited to the service of fixed voice telephony,
to a wider and dynamic notion, adjusted to the new substructure of
telecommunications and to the Information society. Accordingly, it
reasserts the importance of the role of state regulation and public policy
to reach the goals of economies and social coesion. It also examines the
universal servise notion in the new Telecommunications General Lawof
Brazil. Finally, it shows the picture of negligence of the telephony
universalization in Brazil, specially for the less favored users and for the
rural and remote areas, between 1980 and 1995.