Brazil Orders Carriers to Authenticate Calls and Block Mass Callers for 15 Days

Brazil’s federal government published Provisional Measure 1,396/2026 in the Federal Official Gazette on Tuesday (13), setting rules to authenticate, identify and block mass phone calls and messages on telecommunications networks. The measure aims to combat fraud and abuse of the networks, took effect on publication and gives the national telecom regulator, Anatel, 60 days to issue the regulations. The text is dated October 9, according to Atlas Público.

What the measure requires

• Call authentication: the originating carrier must authenticate calls made on its network, transit carriers must preserve that authentication, and the carrier delivering the call to the recipient must verify it first.
• Blocking unauthenticated calls: they must be stopped before reaching the user, except in cases defined by Anatel.
• Business identification: authenticated business calls must show the recipient the company name and, when available and registered in the database, its logo.
• Centralized numbering database: supervised by Anatel and managed and operated by the carriers, who will also bear the cost and may charge the companies that originate calls, under rules set by the agency. The data must be protected under specific legislation.

Who will be blocked for abusive use

The measure requires carriers to block for 15 days the ability to place calls for users who, on the same day, exceed 1,000 calls per access number or 10,000 across all numbers linked to them, provided at least 85% are short calls. Both conditions must occur together.

Anatel will define the procedures for verification, notification, blocking and review, and may provide exemptions depending on call volume.

Deadlines

• Immediately: the provisional measure is already in force.
• 30 days: blocking of calls and messages using access codes that violate Anatel’s rules, and the limit on abusive calls per access number, become mandatory.
• 60 days: deadline for Anatel to issue or adjust the necessary regulations.
• No fixed date: the authentication and identification requirements and the centralized database depend on Anatel’s regulation and the implementation timelines it sets.

Like any provisional measure, the text must be approved by Congress to become law. According to Atlas Público, the deadline is 120 days.

What remains open

The effects for people receiving calls depend on the regulation. It is not yet defined, for example, in which cases Anatel will allow unauthenticated calls, each carrier’s timeline, or how the database will be paid for.

Information from Teletime, Campo Grande News, Atlas Público, Estado do Pará Online and Portal SGC.