Snapshot: Latin America’s expanding 5G mobile customer base

5G continues to grow across Latin America, although expansion projections vary significantly, as does the mobile customer base in each country.

5G Americas and Omdia forecast that 5G will accelerate rapidly in Latin America from 2023 onwards, reaching 501mn connections by 2028.

GSMA estimated last June that Latin American 5G penetration would climb to 57% by end-2030, or 463mn connections, with adoption overtaking 2G in 2024, 3G in 2026 and 4G in 2029.

Ericsson estimates that the Latin American 5G market could generate over US$28.4bn annually in enhanced mobile broadband revenues by 2030.

But how big is the technology’s customer base for the main Latin American countries where 5G is currently available? 

Mobile 5G is being sold by telcos in Chile, Brazil, the Dominican Republic, Uruguay, Mexico and Guatemala. 

Uruguay does not report 5G accesses, only for other technologies. Guatemala does not provide detailed access figures by technology, and in Mexico and the Dominican Republic 5G data is imprecise and/or limited.

BNamericas analyzes the available figures below.

BRAZIL

The country had 19mn 5G accesses as of end-November, leading the region in absolute numbers. Of the total 5G contracts, 75.7% are postpaid.

Growth in one year to November was 272%. Claro and Telefônica Brasil led with 37.7% and 37.4% of 5G accesses, respectively.

CHILE

Chile had 3.14mn 5G accesses as of end-September. Of the total, 92.3% were postpaid.

The technology grew 98.2% compared with the same month of 2022. Entel led the market with 1.31mn 5G accesses, followed by Telefónica Movistar (933,000).

MEXICO

The country has a base of 6.6mn 5G accesses, according to data shared by Ericsson in November.

AT&T and Telcel lead the deployment of 5G networks in Mexico, but there are no actual figures from regulator IFT on the number of 5G users in Mexico. The telcos do not report their customer bases according to technology.

Telcel, the mobile market leader, reports having 104 cities covered by 5G technology. The company had 83.4mn mobile users as of end-September, 14.8mn of which were postpaid. 

AT&T Mexico had approximately 21.8mn wireless subscribers at end-September, compared with 21mn one year earlier, some 5mn of which were postpaid.

DOMINICAN REPUBLIC

Dominican Republic reported that 14.5% of mobile lines used mobile internet technologies other than 3G or 4G – that is, mainly 5G – as of the end of June.

The total number of mobile lines in the Caribbean nation stood at 10.2mn on June 30. BNamericas therefore estimates that the country's 5G base is around 1mn accesses.  

Claro claims to have 5G presence in 31 provinces. Altice reports coverage in 10, encompassing 20.3% of the territory.

COMMERCIAL 5G

A total of 18 telcos are currently selling 5G mobile plans in Latin America:

Brazil: Telefônica Brasil, Claro, TIM, Brisanet, Algar Telecom and Unifique.

Chile: Telefónica Movistar, Entel, WOM and Claro.

Mexico: Telcel, AT&T México, and Telefónica Movistar.

Dominican Republic: Claro Dominicana, Altice.

Guatemala: Claro Guatemala, Tigo. Claro Guatemala reports coverage in 22 departments, Tigo reports coverage in capital Guatemala City.

Uruguay: Antel. *Movistar Uruguay reports pre-commercial phase in parts of capital Montevideo.