Recent news from Brazil indicated that the adoption a surprisingly rapid proliferation of VOIP within Brazil.  Abrafix, the Brazilian association for wireline carriers (a non-profit organization that could be more or less though of as a Brazilian version of the Stentor Alliance) published some research on June 20th claiming that 36% of Brazil's outgoing international calls are being made via "unlicensed" operators selling some sort of LD (VoIP toll bypass).  "Unlicensed" in Abrafix lingo means not having the license from Anatel to participate in this sector. 

Estimates indicate that there are roughly 1,9 million VoIP users in Brazil (not including Skype), representing over 3% of the existing line base already making VOIP calls.  This is enough to begin having a measurable impact on traffic, and eventually, on pricing.  Obviously, the biggest pressure will be on the LD market, due to the exorbitant tariffs for LD calls.  However, given the growing number of subscribers making free peer-to-peer local calls, local tariffs will obviously also have to drop (it is about time! - we are so spoiled over here in Canada and in the US that we do not even know what a local impulse is). 

Also worthwhile pointing out that Skype CEO Niklas Zennström mentioned on an interview earlier this year with Valor Economico that Brazil currently is the fourth largest base of Skype users in the world, with roughly 2 million users.  This figure is only surpassed by the US, Taiwan and Poland.  More impressively, the Skype growth in Brazil has been about 7,000 new adds per day, which would translate to roughly 3.3 million users by the end of 2005 (about 6% of the installed fixed line base).  That is a huge result that can have a lot of ramifications - no wonder the telcos have already begun to actively lobby the government to update the General Law of Telecommunications, in order to address the new realities of the marketplace and issues such as convergence and the impact of VoIP.