Spotlight: The state of play in Brazil’s telecoms arena

Brazil experienced a significant drop of around 7.7mn telecom accesses in the 12 months ended in February, reaching 335mn connections, according to the latest data from regulator Anatel.

All services showed declines in the month, with the steepest drops coming in pay-TV and fixed telephony.

Overall, the country ended February with 2.2mn fewer fixed broadband, mobile telephony, pay-TV and landline accesses compared with the previous month.

The figures could be further updated, as many small service providers and operators may not have submitted all of their data to the regulator in time. 

Among the monthly highlights, 5G continued growing, surpassing the milestone of 7mn accesses for the first time, considering both non-standalone (NSA) and standalone (SA) formats, nearing 3% of all mobile lines in service.

In comparison, Chile, the only other South American nation to have tendered 5G spectrum, ended December with more than 2mn 5G accesses, accounting for 7.7% of all mobile lines in service

Chile held its 5G auction in February 2021, with the first activations taking place in December that year. 

Brazil awarded 5G spectrum in November 2021 and the first network activations were in July 2022.

BNamericas takes a look at the figures for each service in Brazil.

FIXED BROADBAND

Despite a slowdown in recent months, fiber continues to be the trailblazer for fixed broadband in Brazil, with 4.7mn new accesses added over the 12-month period. Compared with January, the base was flat overall, however.

Fiber accounted for 70.3% of the 44.5mn fixed broadband connections as of end-February. Coaxial cable made up 19.8%, followed by metal cable (5.1%) and radio (3.9%).

Overall, fixed broadband connections dipped 300,000 compared with January.

Small internet service providers (ISPs) and non-national providers led the market with a combined 36.5% of total connections in fixed broadband and 43.9% in fiber broadband, up from January.

That group excludes ISPs and telcos with an individual market share of more than 1%, such as EB Fibra (Alloha, 3.9% of the fiber broadband total), Brisanet (3.6%), Claro (3.0%), Desktop (2.6%), Algar (2.5%), Vero (2.2%), Unifique (2.0%), AmericaNet (1.9%), TIM (1.8%) and Triple Play (1.5%).

Brisanet, the largest individual ISP in the country (since rival Alloha groups different ISP brands), said in a statement that Anatel’s February data does not include over 2,300 of its accesses, adding that it ended the month with 1.13mn customers, up by 15,800 from January.

The fiber broadband segment was led by Telefônica Brasil (Vivo) and Oi, with 17.7% and 13.5% of the total, respectively, according to Anatel. Both recorded drops in market share in February.

Meanwhile, Claro continued to rule the overall fixed broadband market, with 21.8% of all connections, followed by Telefônica Brasil (14.5%) and Oi (11.2%). 

Oi's figures were flat, while Telefônica and Claro upped their shares compared with January.

OPERATOR	FIXED BROADBAND MARKET SHARE
Claro	21.8%
Vivo	14.5%
Oi	11.2%
EB Fibra	2.8%
Brisanet	2.5%
Desktop	1.8%
Algar	1.8%
TIM	1.6%
Vero	1.6%
Unifique	1.4%
AmericaNet	1.4%
Triple Play	1.1%

 

MOBILE TELEPHONY

Market leader Telefônica had 39.1% of Brazil’s 250mn February mobile lines, increasing its market share participation compared with January.

The company was followed by Claro with 32.9%, TIM (24.7%), Algar (1.8%) and smaller players (1.5%). Claro lost 0.1 percentage points of its market, while all the other carriers' figures were flat.

Overall, the country’s mobile telephony base declined by some 1mn lines in the month. Postpaid plans accounted for 56.1% of all lines and prepaid 43.9%.

Regarding technologies, 4G LTE accounted for 78.3% of total lines in February, up from 77.9% in January, followed by 2G (9.5%) and 3G (9.2%), which have been in constant decline. 

Of the entire 5G base of 7.3mn accesses, 40.4% were via Claro, followed by Telefônica (38.7%) and TIM (20.9%). 

OPERATOR	MOBILE MARKET SHARE
Telefônica Brasil (Vivo)	39.1%
Claro	32.9%
TIM	24.7%
Algar	1.8%
Others	1.5%

 

PAY-TV AND FIXED TELEPHONY

The number of pay-TV subscribers fell to 13.6mn in February from 13.8mn in January.

Satellite technology accounted for 56.6% of total accesses, ahead of coaxial cable (33.5%) and fiber (9.8%). 

Claro remained at the top of the pile with 43.6% of all subscriptions, up from 43.4% in January. 

Next came Vrio's Sky (28.8%, down from 28.9%), Oi (17.8%, down from 17.9%), and Telefônica (6.5%, flat). 

Sky, which last year announced it was entering the fiber broadband segment through partnerships with neutral players, appears with 2,000 fiber broadband accesses in February.

OPERATOR	PAY-TV MARKET SHARE
Claro	43.6%
Sky	28.8%
Oi	17.8%
Telefônica Brasil	6.5%
Others	3.3%

Finally, fixed telephony subscriptions reached 26.6mn in February, down from 27.1mn the month before, of which 52% were provided by authorized operators and 48% by concession-holders.

Considering all types of licenses, Claro had 30.2% of the market, down from 29.8% in January.

Oi followed with 28.7% (up from 28.5%), Telefônica (26.0%, up from 25.7%), Algar Telecom (4.9%, flat) and TIM (2.7%, flat).

OPERATOR	FIXED TELEPHONY MARKET SHARE
Claro	30.2%
Oi	28.7%
Telefônica Brasil	26%
Algar	4.9%
TIM	2.7%
Alloha	1.3%
Brisanet	1.1%
AmericaNet	1.1%
Others	3.8%