Spotlight: The cities leading 5G adoption in Brazil

5G technology accounted for nearly 28mn accesses in Brazil or 10.7% of the country’s mobile base as of end-May.

Activation has advanced with operators deploying more antennas in more cities than the required number for this stage of the roll-out.

At present, more than 100,000 mobile sites installed in the country have irradiate cellular technology, of which over 23,000 are 5G, data from regulator Anatel shows. The 5G coverage is provided by six telcos in 815 municipalities.

However, the coverage is uneven. The availability of 5G is still limited and largely restricted to urban centers.

While São Paulo state has 6,363 5G antennas deployed, Amazonas, a much larger state in area but with much lower population density, has just 383.

With 1,115 sites, federal district Brasília has more 5G antennas than the entire state of Bahia (1,030), the country’s fourth most populous, the figures show.

The capital district is home to around 2.8mn people and has some 3.9mn mobile accesses, compared to 15.1mn and 15.2mn in Bahia.

5G ADOPTION

BNamericas looked into Anatel’s dashboards and databases to see which cities lead in 5G accesses, both in absolute figures and as a percentage of mobile users.

In absolute figures, as expected, the ranking is topped by São Paulo, with 3.9mn 5G accesses that account for 24.5% of the city’s mobile base.

The country's biggest city is followed by Rio de Janeiro (1.97mn and 23.6%), Brasília (915,000, 26.7%), Belo Horizonte (763,500, 24.9%) and Curitiba (657,000, 27.8%).

São Paulo also leads in cities with the most 5G connections as a percentage of the total mobile base. 

In São Caetano do Sul, in the São Paulo metropolitan region, 31% of mobile accesses are 5G, the highest rate of any Brazilian city.

Santa Catarina state city Balneário Camboriú had a 30.5% 5G penetration rate, followed by the state’s capital Florianópolis (28.4%). Paraná state capital Curitiba had close to 28%, the same as Santos in São Paulo state.

Of the next five cities in the top 10, three are near São Paulo (Indaiatuba, Santana do Parnaíba and Jundiaí), one in Rio de Janeiro (Niterói) and one in Espírito Santo state (Vitória).

PROVIDERS

Brazil’s three main telcos – Claro, Vivo and TIM – had 37.2%, 37.1% and 25.6% of 5G accesses, respectively, on a nationwide basis at end-May.

In São Paulo state, Telefónica’s Vivo leads with 39.7% while América Móvil’s Claro has 38.7% and TIM 21.5%.

In terms of 5G, Vivo has 48.2% of all accesses in São Caetano do Sul and TIM has 50.3% of those in Balneário Camboriú.

In Florianópolis, the 5G market leader is Vivo with 35.6% and in Curitiba TIM is number one with 48.5%.

Completing the top five cities, Claro is the leader in Santos with 45.1% of 5G accesses.