TIM and Nextel Lead Complaints Rate in Brazilian Mobile Telecommunications

RIO DE JANEIRO, BRAZIL – The National Telecommunications Agency (ANATEL) has released the Data Panels and started to provide statistics of customer complaints filed against service providers at the agency.

Nextel is the mobile operator with the highest rate of complaints, followed by TIM, Oi, and Claro. When it comes to fixed broadband, TIM leads the ranking; Sky and Oi come next. The numbers refer to the period between September 2018 and September 2019.

Vivo leads in absolute number of complaints

It is typical that operators with a higher number of clients get a higher number of complaints, and this is the case of Vivo: it accumulated more than 758,000 protocols in ANATEL.

• Company Number of complaints
  1st place – Vivo 758,339
  2nd place – TIM 753,611
  3rd place – Claro/NET 742,152
  4th place – Oi 728,007
  5th place – Sky 139,441
  6th place – Nextel 50,978
  Other operators 116,233

For a fairer comparison, ANATEL employs a Complaints Index, which shows the number of complaints for every 1,000 subscribers. This is done for each service modality: prepaid and postpaid mobile and landline telecommunications, fixed broadband, and pay-TV.

Nextel has the worst result in mobile services

Nextel is the mobile operator with the worst rate: between October 2018 and October 2019, the company accumulated only 50,978 protocols, but this represents 1.15 complaints for every 1,000 subscribers. It has recently been bought by Claro and is awaiting the release of the deal by the Administrative Council of Economic Defense (CADE) over TIM’s objection.

Among the national operators, TIM performed the worst, while Vivo achieved the best result.

• Operator – Mobile Telecommunications Complaints Index
  Nextel – 1,15
  TIM – 0,89
  Oi – 0,44
  Claro – 0,43
  Vivo – 0,33

Among all operators, the main complaints are billing at odds with the contracted service (179,000); billing after cancellation (80,000); and billing for a non-contracted service, product, or plan (66 thousand).

TIM has a higher rate of complaints in fixed broadband

Although it has fewer broadband clients than Vivo, Oi, and Claro, the Italian-owned TIM presents a much higher rate of complaints in relation to the competition: there are 13.42 complaints for every 1,000 clients.

The main reasons are billing at odds with the contracted service (68,000); slow or reduced connection speed (50,000); and no data connection (45,000).

Claro has worse performance in pay-TV

Claro’s satellite TV shows the highest index of complaints in ANATEL’s ranking, followed by Vivo and Sky. NET is considered separately, taking into account only cable TV service. Claro and NET are part of the same company, and it has the largest number of pay-TV clients in Brazil.

As in the other services, the most claimed motives are billing at odds with the contracted service (94,000), billing after cancellation (25,000) and unprocessed cancellation requested by means of an attendant (14,000).

Oi has the highest number of complaints in landline

Oi has the highest number of landline complaints, as well as the worst rate: 2.19 protocols for every 1,000 subscribers. TIM, which has very few clients in this area, is in second place. Meanwhile, Vivo, the leader in customers in this category – ranks third.

The most frequently claimed reasons are billing at odds with the contracted service (113,000); line changes or no signal (49,000); and collection after cancellation (38,000).

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