Brazil’s telecoms market: The state of play

Brazil ended November with over 345mn telecoms accesses in service, considering broadband, mobile telephony, pay-TV and fixed telephony.

This is up from nearly 341mn in the same month of 2023 and down from 349mn in October 2024, according to the most recent data from regulator Anatel. In November, all segments lost accesses.

The final data may change, however, as some providers send their information after the watchdog's monthly report.

However, a market slowdown is discernible, driven by the increasing penetration of fixed internet, universalization of mobile accesses, especially when IoT and M2M connections are excluded, and a decline in landlines and traditional pay-TV.

According to recent figures from Conexis, the entity that brings together the largest operators in the country, investments in January-September 2024 stood at 24.3bn reais (US$4.03bn), down from 24.5bn reais in the same period of the previous year. Adjusted for inflation, those investments were 24.5bn reais and 25.7bn reais, respectively.

The outlook for 2025 is for moderate growth in the fiber and mobile bases and decline in the other segments.

BNamericas takes a look at the main highlights of the figures in November 2024.

Mobile – 5G steadily rising

Of the total of 263mn active mobile lines in service, 5G accounted for 14.5%. The technology saw an increase of 1.3mn lines during the month alone. 4G represented 71.3% of the total, 2G 7.5% and 3G 6.7%.

5G continues to grow organically, among other factors, due to normal smartphone replacement cycles involving 5G-ready devices.

Base growth is also related to the expansion of network availability, with the technology now being present in almost 800 Brazilian cities, notably those with larger populations.

Considering all technologies, Brazil’s mobile base grew 3.1% in the 12 months to November. Compared with October, the mobile segment declined by 0.2%.

Among the main operators, Telefônica Brasil (Vivo) continues to lead the segment with a 38.1% market share. The company was also the one that grew the most last year.

In January-November, Vivo added 2.9mn mobile accesses, followed by Claro, with a 33.5% market share and an addition of nearly 1.2mn lines, according to Anatel.

With a 23.6% market share, TIM grew by roughly 720,000 accesses in the period.

Outside the major telcos, MVNO enabler Surf added over 1mn SIM cards to its base.

In 5G in particular, Vivo leads with 39.5% of all accesses, followed by Claro (34.9%) and TIM (25.3%).

Fixed broadband – weak impetus despite fiber advances

The fixed broadband base closed November at 50.6mn accesses, down 4.6% from the previous month but up 4.5% year-on-year.

Despite this, fiber accesses were up 8.8% in the year, although they fell 5.2% month-on-month.

Overall, the technology now represents 77.2% of the entire fixed broadband base. Coaxial cable accounted for 16.8% of the total, followed by radio (3%), metallic cable (1.9%) and satellite (1.1%).

Claro maintained its leadership with a 20.2% market share, followed by Vivo (14.4%) and Oi, whose fiber operation was recently acquired by V.tal, with 8.8%.

Among the top three players, Vivo expanded its base by 0.8% in November and Claro by 0.3%. On an annual basis, Vivo grew by 8.4%, while Claro saw a 2.8% increase.

In fiber optics, Vivo had 17.6%, Oi 10.9% and Claro 4.6%.

Trading as Giga Mais Fibra, Alloha had 4.1%, Brisanet 3.6%, Vero 3.5%, Desktop 2.9%, Algar 2.1%, Unifique 2%, Brasil TecPar 2%, Alares 2% and TIM 1.9%.

Small ISPs and regional providers collectively held 42.7% of the fiber broadband market and 37.8% of the overall fixed broadband one.

In satellite broadband, Starlink widened its lead with a 56.8% market share, serving over 313,000 customers, a monthly increase of 5.9% and a year-on-year surge of 148%. Starlink was followed by Hughes (31.1%), Viasat Brasil (3.8%), Telebras (3.1%), and Claro (2.1%).

Landines and pay-TV

Fixed telephony continued its decline, with lines falling to 22.4mn, for a monthly decrease of 3.9% and 12.5% year-on-year.

Of total fixed telephony base, 79.4% were provided by authorized operators, while concession operators accounted for 20.6%. Fiber-based lines were 11.7mn.

Claro led the fixed telephony segment with a 30.9% share, followed by Vivo (25.8%), Oi (25.1%), Algar Telecom (4.2%) and TIM Brasil (2.8%).

In the pay-TV segment, subscriptions fell to 9.4mn, with satellite technology dominating (50.5%), followed by coaxial cable (37.2%) and fiber (12.3%). 

The number of accesses slipped by 2% and was down 20.6% year-over-year in November.

Claro also led this sector with a 50.6% market share, followed by Sky/AT&T (28.6%), Vivo (8.4%), Oi (8%) and others (4.5%).