President Jair Bolsonaro’s government had interfered with the National Telecommunications Agency (Anatel, in Portuguese) to authorize the operation in the Brazilian territory of satellites from Starlink, a company owned by billionaire Elon Musk. The regulatory agency is, in principle, "administratively independent" from the federal administration.
Documents obtained through the Law of Information Access with the correspondences between the federal government and the company show the actions of the Brazilian government in favor of Starlink, in addition to demonstrating the participation of the United States Embassy Department of Commerce in an attempt to accelerate the Anatel certification process for Musk's company satellites.
Click here to download in full the documents analyzed by Brasil de Fato and experts.
With the approval granted by Anatel on January 28 this year, Starlink is now able to offer its internet services in Brazil. Most of today's satellite internet services are made possible through simple geostationary satellites, which orbit the planet at an altitude of about 35,000 km (almost 22,000 mi). Elon Musk's are a constellation of more than 4,000 satellites at a distance of only 550 km (342 mi). Anatel's approval was the first for such a project in the country.
At the end of last year, Elon Musk, who is also CEO of the automaker company Tesla and the aerospace company SpaceX, was once again the richest man in the world after surpassing the fortune of Jeff Bezos, Amazon’s founder.
To explain step-by-step the talks and the legal process that authorized Starlink’s service in the country, Brasil de Fato prepared a timeline to show the pressure of the Bolsonaro government on the regulatory agency in favor of Musk’s company. Check it below.
Unofficial meeting and a selfmade invitation
The messages also show that the ministry has omitted from the official agenda a conversation by phone between Fábio Faria, Brazil’s communication minister, and the tech tycoon in October 2021, during decisive days for the agency's approval of Starlink satellites. The correspondences indicate that the Communications Ministry used the interest of Elon Musk’s company in Anatel’s approval to “force” a visit of Faria to the company headquarters in Los Angeles.
A letter shows that Faria was the first to mention the Amazon Rainforest in the negotiations of a partnership between the federal government and the company. In a text in which he emphasizes a couple of times his admiration for Starlink, the minister begins the letter with the odd greeting “Dear Mr. Musk” and cites the Amazon region as being “the biggest digital gap” Brazil currently has, “it is impossible to connect [the entire Amazon region to the internet]” without satellites. Faria said, too, that “it would be an honor” to visit the company in person at Los Angeles in a month when he would be in the United States.
Proof of contact with Anatel is registered
In one of the messages, the Telecommunications secretary Arthur Coimbra de Oliveira confirms word by word to Starlink’s CEO that the government had contacted the regulatory agency to get information on the process involving the US company.
Confirmation of federal government contact with Anatel, at the request of Starlink, can be seen in a letter sent by Coimbra on October 29, 2021. In the message, the secretary of the ministry headed by Fábio Faria wrote to Gwynne Shotwell, the company’s CEO: "I also inform you that we are already talking to Anatel about Starlink’s grant and we will contact you on that matter as soon as we get a solid perspective from the agency".
In another correspondence, the federal government is informed that the company is studying a maneuver in Anatel's authorization process to accelerate the approval. Starlink's CEO says that she is working to enable a "circular vote" on Anatel's Board of Directors. The term refers to decisions that cannot wait until the next meeting of collegiate bodies, being taken remotely, without the debate determined by the regulation.
“We are exploring whether the authorization can be adopted before the 25 November board meeting through a circular vote, as without it, we face a day-for-day loss in being able to provide service in Brazil”, said the company’s CEO in October, bothered with the fact that in Anatel’s meeting in that month didn’t discuss the issue. Replying to this message, a week later, Coimbra admitted the talks between the federal government and the regulatory agency.
The government also accepts the company's attempts to schedule a meeting at the ministry to discuss the procedures in Anatel. At no time does the federal government mention the agency's legal autonomy to decide on the regulatory process.
Ministry doesn’t have prerogative to intervene
Expert Renata Mielli, member of Rights in Network Coalition and National Forum for the Democratization of Communication, made comments on the matter at the request of Brasil de Fato. According to her, “the Brazilian regulation model, based on agencies, has the aim to create an independent environment which is autonomous from the government in taking economic and strategic decisions to the areas that were privatized in the country".
Mielli mentioned Law 13848/2019 and also said that if the pressure by the federal government influenced Anatel directors, the authorization process for the right to exploit Starlink satellites should be re-examined.
“If the government used its political power through the Ministry of Communications to influence Anatel’s decision; and, for its turn, if the directors of this very agency have kneel to the interests that motivated the negotiations in a way that didn’t respect Anatel's impersonality, decision-making process, and technical autonomy, the entire authorization and granting process for Starlink operation in Brazil must be examined once more”, she stated.
Another expert Brasil de Fato has consulted (and who preferred not to be identified), used the following analogy for the case: the contact between Starlink and the Ministry of Communications about a process that runs in Anatel is the same as a manufacturer of the vaccine against covid-19 seeking the Ministry of Health to have a head start in a process that runs in the National Agency of Sanitary Surveillance (Anvisa, in Portuguese).
What those involved in the case say
Brasil de Fato tried to contact the Ministry of Communications to hear from them about their relationship with Starlink. We asked whether there was some phone call from Fábio Faria to Elon Musk, as highlighted in the documents, and whether the ministry contacted Anatel representatives to accelerate or obtain information on the approval of the company’s satellites.
We also tried to hear from Anatel and asked whether the agency had any kind of official or unofficial contact with representatives from the Ministry of Communications. Both bodies confirmed they received our emails and said the claim is allegedly “being treated”. They had more than ten days to give us an answer, but even though there wasn’t any. We keep on open to hearing from them.
Timeline
Understand every talk between Starlink, the Brazilian government and the US Embassy in Brazil. To read the correspondence in full, click here.
The first contact
October 12, 2021: Starlink asks for a meeting with Fábio Faria to talk about an agenda from Anatel’s Board of Directors.
Brian Weir, Starlink’s CEO assistant, sends an email suggesting a video call between his boss, Gwynne Shotwell, and Brazil’s minister of communications, Fábio Faria, to take place on October 14. According to Weir, the objective of the meeting was to discuss the inclusion of the voting on Starlink satellite authorization in the Anatel’s Board of Directors on October 21.
Email signed by Brian Weir, from Starlink, mentions the process in Anatel and asks for a meeting with the Ministry of Communications.
US Embassy takes action
October 14, 2021: The US Embassy, on behalf of Starlink, meets the Ministry of Communications
On the date suggested by Starlink, Bryan Goldfinger, a representative of the US Embassy Department of Commerce in Brazil, takes part in a meeting at the Ministry of Communications with Yasmin Azevedo, head of international advisory. In a message sent the following day, Goldfinger recalls that he is “supporting SpaceX in some of its moves in the Brazilian market. Among them, the granting process with Anatel”. In the email, the US Embassy formalizes a request for a meeting via video call between the CEO, the vice president of Starlink, Fábio Faria, and his Telecommunications secretary, Artur Coimbra de Oliveira.
Official record of the agenda of the Chief Advisor for International Affairs at the Ministry of Communications.
Email sent in the day following the meeting between the US Embassy and Brazil’s Ministry of Communications. The latter mentions, once again, the process in Anatel.
Dear Mr. Musk: the letter from Fábio Faria
October 14, 2021: Fábio Faria replies Starlink in a letter to Elon Musk and “invites himself” to visit the US, plus mentions the Amazon Rainforest
Without mentioning Starlink’s request for a meeting to discuss the grant by Anatel to the company's satellite, the minister of Communications “invites himself” to meet Elon Musk. In the letter, Faria says he would be in the US in November and that “It would be an honor” to him and to his entourage to know the company in Los Angeles. For the first time, Amazon is mentioned. Musk himself never replied to the letter.
Letter from Fábio Faria to the tycoon tech Elon Musk in which the former “negotiates” his visit to Starlink facilities in the US.
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Brazilian government agrees to talk on Anatel
18 de outubro de 2021: governo federal aceita falar sobre Anatel e sugere reunião de Faria com Starlink para o dia seguinte
On Monday morning (18), the Ministry of Communications' international advisor replies to the US Embassy representative accepting the request for a meeting between Faria, the Telecommunications Secretary, and Starlink executives. She suggests a video call the next day (19), at 10 am. She thanks Brian Goldfinger for his support in the attempt to get Fábio Faria and Elon Musk to meet.
The federal government agrees to meet Starlink executives to discuss on the process in Anatel.
Meeting does not take place and company insists
October 18, 2021: Starlink can't make time in its schedule and asks for a new date for a video call meeting
In the late afternoon of the same Monday (18), the US Embassy claims to have been informed that Gwynne Shotwell would be traveling, so she wouldn't be able to attend the meeting at the hour suggested by the Brazilian government. The US representative then suggests that the video call be rescheduled for the following week and asks the Ministry of Communications advisor to say a date, but gets no response.
Email points out that the Embassy continues trying to schedule a meeting between the Starlink executive and Brazil’s minister of communications
The company admits being evaluating a “maneuver”
October 22, 2021: Starlink’s CEO replies to the letter from Faria to Musk, says it's evaluating “alternatives” in Anatel and agrees with the visit of Faria to the US
In the day following the meeting on Anatel, a new letter sent to the Brazilian government, Starlink once again mentions the issue and says the company is evaluating ways to get the approval even before Anatel’s Board Directors meeting, in November. “We are exploring whether the authorization can be adopted before the 25 November board meeting through a circular vote, as without it, we face a day-for-day loss in being able to provide service in Brazil.”
The answer to Fábio Faria’s letter didn’t come from Elon Musk himself but from Starlink’s CEO.
More pressure
October 25, 2021: US Embassy and Starlink demand again from the government a meeting schedule
After a week with no reply from the Brazilian government on the meeting to debate Anatel’s grant of Starlink, the US representatives and Musk’s company demand, in two different emails, the government to talk with the company’s CEO.
Patricia Marega, the US Embassy representative, can be read in the correspondences demanding a meeting between Starlink and the Ministry
Secret phone call
Between October 26 and 29, 2021: Faria and Musk talk by phone in an undisclosed meeting
A phone call between Fábio Faria and Elon Musk took place during this period, according to information provided by the government's Telecommunications Secretary in an email sent on October 29, 2021. The call is not on the minister's official agenda, as determined by the Conflict-of-Interest Law.
Secretary admits he had been in contact with Anatel
October 29, 2021: Secretary of telecommunications says to Starlink he contacted Anatel to approve the company
Artur Coimbra de Oliveira, the secretary of Telecommunications, admitted the government contacted Anatel at the request of Starlink. In a message sent to Starlink's CEO, he wrote: "I also inform you that we are already talking to Anatel about Starlink’s grant and we will contact you on that matter as soon as we get a solid perspective from the agency".
Secretário das Telecomunicações agradece aval a visita aos EUA e cita “conversa” com Anatel sobre processo da Starlink / Reprodução/Consulta E-SIC
The great meeting: Musk and Faria
November 15, 2021: visit of Fábio Faria and his entourage to Starlink's headquarters, meeting with Elon Musk
Fábio Faria and his entourage visit the Starlink and SpaceX factories in Los Angeles, welcomed by Gwynne Shotwell. On the night of that same day, they meet with Elon Musk in Austin, Texas. On Twitter, the minister publishes a video of the meeting with the billionaire and says that the goal was to “start a partnership” to take Starlink to Brazil’s Amazon region.
Acharam que iríamos parar com o leilão do 5G? Não! Agora vamos buscar empresas de inovação para investirem no Brasil. Queremos que o país seja hub de inovação da América Latina com o 5G. Eu acredito no ??! #LetsDoThis @elonmusk pic.twitter.com/s7G4spT94A
— Fábio Faria ?????? (@fabiofaria) November 16, 2021 Emergency authorization
November 22, 2021: Starlink in Brazil files a request to Anatel's technical area for temporary satellite tests in a community in the city of São Paulo
Starlink files a request to carry out tests in the Savoyzinho community in the city of São Paulo, in partnership with the international NGO Fight for Peace. The plan was to connect a community center, which serves about 40 students, to the Starlink satellite broadband internet service. If there were no obstacles, the tests would be performed between December 7, 2021, and February 4, 2022.
Starlink tests are allowed
3 de dezembro de 2021: área técnica da Anatel concede autorização temporária para testes da Starlink em comunidade de SP
An Anatel analyst, whose name is not informed in the agency’s Electronic Information System, authorizes Starlink tests in the city of São Paulo. The approval is granted on the same date on which the company filed a second version of the authorization request.
Crisis between Anatel and the Ministry of Communications
December 5, 2021: a newspaper reveals the embarrassment of Anatel directors with the relation between Faria and Musk
A report by the newspaper Folha de São Paulo presents information on the crisis in the relationship between the regulatory agency and the government. Under anonymity, technicians from Anatel claim that there was a request from direct advisors to minister Fábio Faria to "speed" the Starlink’s evaluation process. To Folha de São Paulo, minister Fábio Faria denied any type of pressure from the Ministry. "I didn't ask for anything at all."
Excerpt from the news story released by Folha de São on December 5, 2021.
Anatel revokes the test permission
January 3, 2022: Anatel steps back and suspends the temporary authorization to Starlink tests in a community in the city of São Paulo
Almost a month after the start of Starlink tests, Anatel reversed the decision granted by the technical and managerial area. The agency highlights that the authorization shouldn’t have been granted. An analyst from the agency revoked the previous decision and made the tests conditional on the definitive grant for the right to explore geostationary satellites in Brazil.
A happy end? Starlink is operating in Brazil
January 28, 2022: Anatel grants definitive authorization to Starlink
With the definitive authorization to explore its satellites in Brazil, granted by the Anatel Board Director meeting in January, Starlink can use 4.408 low-orbit non-geostationary satellites to offer broadband internet to Brazilian consumers. The license runs until 2027.
Correction: The first version of this article stated that Starlink satellites were geostationary. The mistake was corrected on Thursday (17). Musk's company satellite
Edited by: Rodrigo Durão Coelho