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| Company type | Sociedade Anônima |
|---|---|
| B3: OIBR3,OIBR4 | |
| Industry | Telecommunications |
| Founded | 1998; 27 years ago (1998)[1] |
| Fate | Declared bankrupt by judge |
| Headquarters | Rio de Janeiro, Brazil |
Key people | Eurico Teles(CEO)[2] |
| Products | Fixed line &mobile phone internet services Pay television |
| Revenue |  R$9.28 billion (2020) |
| R$−10.53 billion (2020) | |
Number of employees | 18947 |
| Website | Official Website (English) |
Oi (IPA:[ˈoj],Portuguese for "Hi"), formerly known asTelemar, is the largest fixed telephone operator and the fourth mobile telephone operator inBrazil, being the third largest telecommunication company in Latin America. It is headquartered inRio de Janeiro.
In 2013, Oi announced its merger withPortugal Telecom, the largest telecommunication company in Portugal. In June 2015, Portugal Telecom was acquired byAltice Group.[3]
On June 20, 2016, Oi filed for aUS$19 billion (R$65 billion)bankruptcy protection, the largest on record for Brazil.[4]
Oi (then known as Telemar) was formed as Tele Norte Leste to merge sixteen state-ownedincumbent local exchange carriers, during theprivatization of Braziliantelecommunications system. Each carrier served a particular Brazilian state in the northern, northeastern and southeastern part of the country. In the break-up ofTelebras in 1998 it was sold to a consortium led by the Brazilian construction firmAndrade Gutierrez (21.2%) andInepar Holdings (20%) as well as other Brazilian corporate and individual investors. The consortium paid 3.434 billion reais.
The states that formed the base of Telemar at its inception wereRio de Janeiro,Minas Gerais,Espírito Santo,Bahia,Sergipe,Alagoas,Pernambuco,Paraíba,Rio Grande do Norte,Piauí,Ceará,Maranhão,Pará,Amazonas,Amapá andRoraima, corresponding to 65% of the Brazilian territory and 20 million households.
Initially, Telemar was allowed to offer only local voice and data services and interstate long-distance voice services. Today, Telemar and its subsidiaries offer local, long-distance and international voice and data services, besides a growing mobile phone network.
In April 2006, it was announced that Telemar would restructure itself, merging its three holding companies into a single company, that would have been named eitherTelemar Participações S.A. orOi Participações S.A. However, those plans failed, since there was no consensus between Telemar shareholders. But on March 1, 2007, Telemar rebranded itself to "Oi",[5] unifying all of its companies and services under the Oi umbrella. The company is still legally known as "Telemar Norte Leste S.A.", "Tele Norte Leste Participações S.A." and "Telemar Participações S.A.". Oi owns the brands:
In 2010,Portugal Telecom acquired 22.4% of Oi shares.
In 2013, Oi announced its merger withPortugal Telecom, the largest telecommunication company in Portugal, in order to strengthen the Brazilian firm and simplify its ownership structure. The acquisition of Portugal Telecom was troubled; an issue with Portugal Telecom's financial cash flow was discovered in 2014, leaving Oi without additional capital.[6] Main shareholder of the merged companies, Rioforte, ended up not paying the agreed amount of $1.2 billion dollars that should have been paid to Portugal Telecom in order to pay bonds.[7][8] As a result, Oi had to default after the merger and reduce the participation of the company's former shareholders.[7] Telemar Participações was incorporated by Oi, simplifying the corporate structure and terminating the shareholders' agreement.[9][10]
In February 2014, Oi announced it would raise $5.9 billion in a share offering as part of the firm's merger process withPortugal Telecom.[11]
In June 2015, Portugal Telecom was acquired byAltice Group.[3]
In March 2017, Oi had 63 million revenue generating units (UGRs), including 40 million for personal mobile service, 16.3 million for landline, 6.5 million for B2B (large corporations and microentrepreneurs).[12][13]
In March 2019, Oi reported a fourth-quarter net loss of 3.359 billion reais ($858 million), widening 66 percent from its year-earlier loss. Total revenue fell 7.9 percent.[14]
In December 2020, a consortium formed byVivo,TIM eClaro purchased the mobile assets for R$16.5 billion.[15]
In October 2021, Oi delisted itsADRs from theNew York Stock Exchange.[16]
On January 31, 2022,ANATEL (National Telecommunications Agency) approved the sale of the company.CADE (Administrative Council for Economic Defense) approved the purchase with reservations on January 9 of the same year.[17][18][19]
On February 8, 2023, Oi once again filed forChapter 15 bankruptcy in the United States.[20] In 2025, Oi was declared bankrupt and was ordered to liquidate all of its assets. The company had approximately €5.7 billion ($6.6 billion USD) in unpaid debt by the second quarter of 2025.[21]
Oi launched its mobile network in 2002 in its license states. It was the first network usingGSM in Brazil. Oi has the practice of not calling its phones "cell phones", but rather "Ois". In 2007, Oi started selling onlyunlocked handsets, focusing onSIM card and plan sales. In October 2007, Oi acquired a license to operate with GSM inSão Paulo, where the network went live on October 24, 2008. In December 2007, Oi purchased licenses to operate a3G network in its area, including São Paulo, but with the exception of theFranca area. That network is expected to go live in 2009. Also in December 2007, Oi announced its purchase ofAmazônia Celular, which was a condition of the sale of its sister company,Telemig Celular, toVivo.
Oi Internet is anISP that was launched in 2004. Oi Internet started services with a promotion that offered 31% off the dial-up connection costs on the subscriber's bill. However,Anatel, the Brazilian telecom regulator, did not allow this practice. Later, the ISP relaunched the promotion, offering 31% of the dial-up connection costs deposited in the subscriber's bank account or twice of that on a prepaid Oi phone. The Oi Internet dial-up dialer can sendSMS messages to Oi phones.
In early 2005, Oi Internet launched itsbroadband services, initially available only for Oi'sOi Velox DSL subscribers, but now also available forBrasil TelecomTurbo andTelefónicaSpeedy subscribers.
In 2008, Oi announced it would purchaseBrasil Telecom, creating a major Brazilian telecommunications company, already nicknamed "Supertele" or "SuperOi". That takeover required changes in legislation, which at the time prohibited a fixed telephone company from purchasing another fixed telephone company in a different license area. That legislation has changed since, and Oi completed its purchase of Brasil Telecom on January 9, 2009. Rollout of the Oi brand in the Brasil Telecom area starts with prepaid mobile service on May 17, 2009.
Oi has been criticized and fined byAnatel due to not being able to meet quality goals in their mobile phone service;[22] they have also been criticized for poor customer service.[citation needed]
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