Four cities in Rio Grande do Sul without mobile service

This is an automated translation of the original release published in Portuguese.

Anatel press release

The most recent report from Anatel regarding the impact of the floods in Rio Grande do Sul, closed at 7pm on 8/5, indicates that, of the 497 municipalities in Rio Grande do Sul:

- 271 municipalities were not affected;

- 222 municipalities were partially affected, but there is at least one provider with active coverage;

- 4 that are totally affected, with no operator available: Arroio do Meio, Doutor Ricardo, Eldorado do Sul and Progresso.

Anatel adopted measures to deal with the emergency by coordinating service providers in the situational assessment and response to incidents, and promoting the sharing of information between sectoral agents and government bodies.

The main objective is to resume the affected services as quickly as possible as communications play an essential role both for civil defense agencies and for citizens in the affected region.

Since Tuesday 05/02, the providers have started to open roaming among themselves, according to the protocol determined by the agency, which is the service that allows citizens to stay connected to another provider's network when their original provider goes offline, free of charge. and, in the vast majority of cases, without the need for changing settings on the cell phone.

Therefore, in some municipalities where a given provider's infrastructure is 100% affected, customers are being served by signals from other providers that are active.

If the citizen's terminal does not automatically connect to another network, we suggest activating the roaming service in the device's settings, and “Automatic network selection”, so that the device searches for the connection.

The roaming facility will be active until the providers achieve the recovery of services, monitored by the agency.

Among the measures adopted by the agency to minimize impacts on telecommunications networks in affected municipalities are:

- Participation in a risk management group of bodies related to weather forecasts and civil defense, which are useful for anticipating relief and complications in the situation;

- The establishment of the crisis group with mobile phone operators for situational analysis, sharing of information, reception of sectoral demands and adoption and control of response measures;

- Monitoring and control of roaming opening requirements, according to the sectorally agreed crisis reaction protocol;

- Monitoring and control of actions to reestablish Public Utility and Emergency Services - SUP (190, 192, 193, etc.). In cases where it has not yet been possible to arrange repairs to the line on an emergency basis, a follow-me solution is being provided for the cell phones of Emergency Service representatives;

- Requesting providers to take emergency measures to maintain connectivity to citizens, such as not suspending prepaid chips with no balance, or other unpaid services, while the emergency situation continues (Claro, Tim and Vivo effectively announced actions in this sense);

- Assessment and adoption of measures with providers to minimize risks to critical infrastructures in the region;

- Establishment of a crisis committee with operators of fixed telephone services, fixed broadband and associations for situational analysis, sharing of information, reception of sectoral demands and adoption of response actions;

- Participation in the Federal Government Crisis Committee led by the Civil House, where it reports on sectoral situations and demands, and receives useful information for crisis management;

- Direct contact between the Anatel Inspection teams in RS and the State Civil Defense to provide sectoral information, provide necessary support and intermediate priorities related to telecommunications services.