Brazil regulator to ease barriers for IoT adoption

Brazilian telecom regulator Anatel launched a public consultation on proposals to reduce red tape and regulatory barriers to the expansion of internet of things (IoT) applications and machine-to-machine (M2M) communications.

Contributions can be sent via Anatel's website by October 12. The watchdog will use the suggestions for a review of current IoT and M2M regulations.

Other initiatives also aim to facilitate IoT deployment.

A bill to exempt both IoT and M2M equipment from paying the Fistel telecom fee is currently being discussed in the lower house, for example. Operators currently pay nearly the same amount of Fistel tax for a small tracking device such as a smart meter as for a smartphone.

The bill would also exempt telecommunications stations that integrate M2M communication systems from the Condecine audiovisual fee and the public broadcasting promotion contribution fee.

And in May, the digital policies secretary of the science, technology, innovations and communications ministry (MCTIC), Thiago Camargo, said the ministry wants to remove the social welfare taxes PIS and Confins and all three telecom fees (Fistel, Fust and Funttel) from IoT devices for 10 years.

With the objective of boosting the IoT ecosystem, the ministry also created a national IoT plan, with financing from federal development bank BNDES. A first call is currently selecting projects for smart cities, rural environment and health for a maximum of 20mn reais each (about US$4mn), which will be non-reimbursable.

According to BNDES, projects related to infrastructure – including telecommunications – are expected to attract 490bn reais in public and private investment in 2018-21.

In addition, Brazilian research financing entity Finep is offering special financing for IoT and advanced manufacturing projects, through low-interest loans, with applications in health, industry, agribusiness and urban development.

The financing line, dubbed Finep IoT, is due to remain in place until the end of the year and falls under Brazil's industry 4.0 plan announced in March. Finep will allocate 1.5bn reais.