How are infrastructure sharing contracts between utilities and ISPs in Brazil

The National Telecommunications Agency (Anatel) concluded that recent infrastructure-sharing contracts between telecommunications companies and power distribution companies do not pose risks to competition and therefore can be approved.

The analysis is included in Report No. 52/2026, sent to the National Electric Energy Agency (Aneel), which is responsible for the final decision.

The document examines agreements signed in February 2026 and highlights that the shared use of poles is essential for the expansion of networks, especially fiber optic, as it reduces costs and prevents the duplication of infrastructure.

The contracts involve the use of power poles in a market characterized by a natural monopoly on the supply side and high fragmentation on the demand side.

As the report highlights, there are no economically viable large-scale substitutes for the use of poles, such as underground networks, which reinforces the distributors’ market power.

Despite this, the agency emphasizes that the contracts follow regulatory guidelines and are aligned with the principles of the Economic Freedom Law, which favors autonomy between private agents and reduces state intervention, provided that fair competition conditions are preserved.

With that, Anatel’s technical department took a favorable position regarding the approval of the terms.

The final assessment, however, will be up to Aneel, which is responsible for regulating the electric power distributors involved in the contracts.

Contracts

The analysis of the document indicates an approximate batch of 1.100 contracts.

On the infrastructure holders’ side, that is, the power companies, there is a predominance of large regional distributors.

Among the cases analyzed, Energisa stands out as the company with the highest number of contracts, signing agreements with several providers. Also appearing as significant are Equatorial, Neoenergia, CPFL and EDP.

The data show that, while infrastructure remains concentrated in the hands of a few groups – with Energisa, Equatorial, and Neoenergia accounting for around 70% of the contracts – demand is highly fragmented, consisting mainly of small regional providers.

In practice, power distributors operate as gatekeepers of access to the infrastructure, while hundreds of ISPs compete for limited space on the poles.

In general, the applicants are mostly ISPs and small regional providers, classified as Small-Scale Providers (PPP), without significant participation in the national market and with no ties to major telecommunications groups.

Examples include companies such as Gnet, Flix BR Telecom, Info Sete Telecom, Netminas, and hundreds of local providers.

The exceptions include Unifique, the country’s tenth-largest broadband provider, and V.tal, a nationwide neutral network operator that appears in more than one contract.

Regularization

The high volume of contracts is also linked to a broader regulatory process led by Anatel to organize the use of utility poles in the country.

The agency has been collecting and analyzing information on infrastructure occupancy with the aim of creating a positive registry of regular providers.

The initiative should distinguish companies with formalized contracts from those in irregular situations, increasing the pressure for regularization, especially among smaller providers.

(The original version of this content was written in Portuguese)