3- The Eighth Constitutional Amendment of 1995

On 15 August, 1995, Congress approved the constitutional amendment which had been proposed by the President of the Republic. This altered subsection XI and item "a" of subsection XII of article 21 of the Federal Constitution which brought into force the following:

"Article 21. lt is the duty of the Federal Government:

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XI - to exploit the telecommunication services, directly or by means of authorization, concession or permission. This exploitation will be carried out according to the law, which will regulate the organization of the services in addition to creating a regulatory body and other institutional aspects;

XII - to exploit, directly or by means of authorization, concession or permission;

a) radio and television broadcast services:

................................................................................................................."

This constituted a great victory for the government for stimulating investments in the telecommunication sector infrastructure, which had been until now carried out exclusively by the public sector.

Various arrangements are already being made by the Brazilian government, so as to create the necessary conditions to enable a significant participation from private companies in the telecommunication sector, either national or international. Among them, the following are highlighted:

• Regulation of Concession Rights or Permission for the Exploitation of commercially based Telecommunication Services;
• Recuperation and Expansion programme of the telecommunication system and the Postal System;
• Structural reform of the telecommunication sector;
• Model for Joint-Ventures;
• Technical and Industrial Development Policy for the telecommunication Sector;
• Complementary Regulation of the Cable TV Service;
• Charges restructurisation.