The Federal Senate of Brazil will supply 95 Apple iPhone 18 Pro handsets and 330 Samsung and Motorola mobile phones to senators and chamber staff under a new four-year contract estimated at R$ 6 million.
Opened at the end of October, the public procurement process, registered as Tender 290/2026, covers both the mobile devices and a subscription for telecommunications services. The incoming legislature of the upper house of Brazil's National Congress will take office on February 1 of next year and will be the first to use the new fleet of phones.
Under the terms of the tender, the handsets will be supplied through a temporary loan arrangement known in Brazil as comodato, meaning the devices are made available only for the duration of the contract. The bidding documents put the monthly cost of each Apple unit at R$ 582.74, while the same iPhone 18 Pro model sells for R$ 13,499 on Apple's official website in Brazil.
Contract terms and device replacement rules
Although the initial agreement is valid for four years, the tender allows the contract to be renewed for up to 10 years once the original term expires. During that period, the supplier must replace all mobile handsets every two years.
For those periodic upgrades, the tender stipulates that the replacement handset offered for the top tier must be the best device available in the high-end category. In Brazilian public procurement, a pregão is a competitive tender used by public bodies to contract goods and services, while a comodato arrangement leaves ownership of the hardware with the supplier.
The Federal Senate serves as the upper chamber of Brazil's National Congress in Brasilia, where its governing board oversees administrative contracts and equipment for parliamentary work.
Comparison with the 2022 mobile phone contract
The new procurement will replace Contract 270/2022, a similar agreement signed in 2022 that remains in force. Under that earlier tender, the Senate contracted 93 iPhone 13 Pro units alongside 290 mid-range smartphones manufactured by Samsung and Motorola.
Beyond increasing the number of Apple and Android handsets in the fleet, the upcoming agreement expands the mobile data packages included in the telephone service subscription. The monthly mobile data allowance for the top-tier phones has doubled from 50 GB to 100 GB.
The proportional increase is even larger for the mid-range Samsung and Motorola devices, whose monthly mobile data allowance will rise from 20 GB under the 2022 contract to 50 GB under the new agreement. Apple manufactures the iPhone range, while Samsung and Motorola produce Android handsets widely used in corporate and government fleets.
Senate justification and allocation of handsets
Brazilian broadcaster CNN Brasil asked the Federal Senate how the specific phone models required by the tender were determined. Although the chamber had not responded to that specific question by the time the report was published, leaving space open for further comment, the Senate sent an official statement addressing Tender 290/2026.
In its response to CNN Brasil, the Federal Senate stated that the choice of brand and model is based on technical criteria. According to the chamber, those criteria include compatibility with the technological standard adopted since 2022 to ensure operational continuity and the complete migration of applications and data.
The Senate added that the loaned iPhone 18 Pro handsets will be assigned to senators and to certain directors of the house. The 330 other phones will be used for official duties defined under Directing Committee Act No. 10/1996, while the existing Contract 270/2022 remains open for public inspection on the federal Transparency Portal, an official government website that tracks public spending.
