Making phone calls in Brazil

For landline telphones in Brazil, like for other utilities, in most of the country you are going to need your RNE and CPF numbers. So you're either going to have to be a permanent resident or here on a VITEM visa of some kind AND registered with the Federal Police. Fixed phones are really not an option for anyone in Brazil for a short time, there's just too much bureaucracy involved.

For cellular telephone service (post-pay) accounts it is going to be exactly the same as the above.

The only other option is the pre-pay SIM card, which still will require you to have a CPF number to activate and register. If you don't have a CPF in some cases the vendor may activate it for you with their CPF, but don't count on that since it's not something they all will do.

The six largest operators in Brazil are :

    Vivo:   67 038 000 celulares, 29.5% of the Brazilian market, grupo Telefonica

    Tim:   59 210 000 celulares, 26%, grupo Telecom Italia

    Claro:  57 514 000 celulares, 25.3%, grupo América Movil

    Oi:     42 842 000 celulares, 18.9%, grupos AG, Fundos, BNDES, LaFonte e Portugal Telecom

    CTBC:  672 000 celulares, 0.3%, grupo CTBC

    Sercomtel: 76 000 celulares, 0.03%, grupo Copel / Prefeitura Londrina

Only the first 4 on this list provide service all across Brazil, but of those who do their area of coverage is still very spotty. Cellular telephone service as a whole in Brazil is still back in the dark ages when compared to other countries.

Brazilian cellular operators are NOT noted for good customer service, so be prepared to experience all kinds of problems if you should have to call their customer service lines. In fact, the vast majority of complaints made to PROCON (Brazil's Consumer Protection agency) are about mobile telephone operators.

Cheers,
James   Expat-blog Experts Team

Thank you very much James

As with EVERYTHING in Brasil, it is complicated to get a land line. I do not know which city you are in (which makes a difference) so I will make a suggestion. Get an internet connection and a wireless router. Your friends will probably prefer to communicate via net groups anyway (costs less) and you'll be able to make cheap international calls. Finally set up your router to allow for your friends to have access without your password (Cisco routers have this feature). I have printed out cards with my pre paid cell phone and email address. I've found That the email is more likely to get used as cell phone minutes are costly.

I use Skype.  I can make local and international calls.  It is very inexpensive.  It has saved me a lot of money and problems with phone service here.

Hi,

There are lot of telecom organizations operating in Brazil like any other country.

Brands such as NET, VIVO and TIM being the branded organization.
NET - http://www.netcombo.com.br/  - This is preferred telecom in Brazil for any Landline connections / TV connection
VIVO - http://www.vivo.com.br/          - This is preferred telecom in Brazil for high speed internet / broadband
TIM - https://www.tim.com.br/            - This is preferred telecom in Brazil for low-cost cellular connection.

You can get the rates on internet or by visiting the store. Most of the store you can find in any popular malls in the city.

Thanks and Regards,
Vinod Kumar Singh

A few things about mobile telco and "how to" in Brazil:
- Mobile calls are expensive and are outrageous when calling a different telecom providers
- Because of first point, people are using very often two SIM cards (and thereafters two phones or multi-SIM phone) in order to call all their acquaintances with less outrageous pricing
- Everyone know that number starting by xxx are from one telco and yyy from another one. So they know when to use the good SIM card. If they do not have a SIM from your provider, they will call you and hang up after just one ring, expecting that you will call back.
- Majority of people are using pre-paid SIM card. I do not know anyone using post-paid (familly, friends, acquaintance). I believe only some companies are using them. This is daily task to check your credit remaining on your SIM. Beware, when going to the supermarket, there are always a few people in the queue in front of you, who will ask the cashier to add credit on their SIM, making waiting time even longer. 
- Internet mobile service is expensive and unstable. 4G is like 3G and there is no unlimited plan. I believe Telco provider OI is a bit better because it gives access to a very dense WIFI hotpspot network (unlimited indeed).

One interesting fact is that VONAGE exists in Brasil. It's a VoIP landline so you need to have a decent internet connection, but then there are good plans if you often call international numbers. Much cheaper than using local operators to call internationaly.
I have a Vonage US account that I brought down with me so that my N.American freinds and family can call me for free, I added a local Curitiba number to that account for $9.99/ month

Also, most television providers (GVT, NET, SKY) also offer internet and landline packages.

As far as celphones go, I use a monthly package from TIM.  For less than US$10/month I get 500MB data, unlimited Whatsapp usage (which all my local freinds use) , unlimited text messaging to any operator in Brasil and R$10 in credit for calls.  unlimited calls to other TIM numbers is R$0.75/day

I also brought my Vonage USA phone with me. It works really well. Another option to call friends and family worldwide is Facebook messenger. You don't even need to know their phone number. It will wring their mobile device. It's free.

As mentioned above, you need RNE, CPF, and the bureaucracy is horrendous. If you do get internet installed (e.g from NET), a land-line is almost forced upon you. I haven't been able to get internet offers from other companies.
Regarding mobile phones: you can get pre-paid deals easily (with RNE, CPF), but the data packages are expensive and not satisfactory (~100 MB/week). We got a mobile package together with the home internet package at a decent price which includes 2G/month, which (together with wifi at home) is more than enough.

Hi everyone, I want to ask about public telephones, I have one infront of my apartment (Oi) and need to know how can I use it?
I bought a TIM sim card which is special for visitors and they saud it costs only 1 R$ Per minute for any international call. But when I used it, it costed me 9 R$ per minute. So , I decided not make any international calls from it again.

My husband and I are both with VIVO, and the service is spotty at best. I don't know how much we pay per month since my husband's company picks up the bill.

Our Internet service provider is NET and we pay R$165 a month.

We don't have a landline. For international calls, there's Skype, FaceTime, and free apps that do the trick.

Gee Victoria, that's a bit steep for NET, considering you can get a package called NET Combo Essencial Light for R$159,90. It includes PHONE (landline), Internet (15mega) and HDTV

I think so too considering that you'd get 15mega, phone and TV for R$159,90. Problem is I don't know if you can change back to the cheaper plan now. You should check with them.

Cheers,
James

^ considering that you posted this same message in 2 other parts of the expat forum, this is spam promoting your product.

And you can't access internet "almost everywhere" in Brazil...not even in the big cities.