The board of Anatel, Brazil's telecommunications regulator, unanimously approved on Thursday (Sept. 3) the transfer of control of Oi Serviços Telefônicos to Método Telecomunicações e Comércio. The agency granted prior consent with conditions attached, and the deal cannot close until they are met. The contract was signed in July, before Oi was declared bankrupt, for R$ 60.1 million, according to CNN Brasil.

The unit holds what is left of Oi's old fixed-line concession: voice lines, three-digit service numbers such as 190, 192 and 193 (Brazil's police, ambulance and fire lines), pay phones, towers and other assets. The vote came from rapporteur Edson Holanda, followed by the rest of the panel. Oi had already announced the sale to the market in April, when it was still in judicial reorganization, according to UOL Economia.

The conditions

Anatel required Método to formally take over the regulatory commitments, present financial guarantees approved by the agency, submit a plan to transfer numbering resources and comply with the demands created by Oi's bankruptcy. The agency also ordered an amendment to the Term of Self-Composition, the agreement signed in 2024 by Oi, Anatel and the TCU, Brazil's federal audit court, which ended the fixed-line concession and moved the service to an authorization regime, allowing Oi to sell its copper cables and old telephone station buildings.

The buyer must keep voice service running until December 2028 in the roughly 7,500 localities where Oi is the only operator, along with the three-digit services and voice interconnection. At the meeting, Holanda defended the requirements:

"My analysis concludes that the transfer of control can only be approved through the formal assumption of commitments by Método. This requirement matters given Oi's economic situation and to ensure the commitments are fully executed after the change of control."

The infrastructure investments do not move to Método. They stay with Oi and with V.tal, a company controlled by BTG Pactual, and totaled at least R$ 5.8 billion, with a ceiling of R$ 10.2 billion if Oi collects what it expects from arbitration against Anatel over losses from the concession years. That case remains open, CNN Brasil reported.

For bankrupt Oi, the sale turns a low-revenue, high-maintenance operation into cash. For consumers, the immediate effect is continuity: households and businesses that depend on Oi's fixed-line service, especially in localities with no other operator, keep voice service until 2028 under Método's responsibility, backed by financial guarantees required by the regulator.