Snapshot: Who supplies most 5G antennas in Brazil?

5G continues to advance gradually in Brazil, reaching 24.3mn accesses at end-March (9.4% of all mobile accesses), with two major providers accounting for the majority of supplies of antennas and mobile infrastructure for these networks.

Together, Swedish firm Ericsson and China's Huawei account for over 98% of 5G sites established in the country, according to data presented by Anatel official Sidney Azeredo Nince at a meeting of the regulator's advisory board on May 21.

Ericsson leads the market with 53.6% of the total and Huawei has 44.6%. The remainder is covered by Nokia, according to Anatel.

Nince reported that the agency has licensed 23,121 5G sites, which were deployed in 758 cities.

Anatel's interactive database on mobile antennas in the country, however, indicates that there are currently 21,954 5G radio base stations deployed across 831 municipalites in the country. 

It also shows that TIM leads coverage with 8,415 antennas, followed by Claro (7,509) and Telefônica Brasil (4,801).

This means that Ericsson supplied approximately 11,800 of the 5G antennas to mobile operators, Huawei over 9,600 and Nokia roughly 400.

DEVICES

In terms of 5G terminals approved by the agency, the market is largely dominated by Asian brands.

The segment is led by Samsung, with more than 50 Anatel's licensed devices, followed by Lenovo’s Motorola, then Xiaomi, Apple and Realme.

The 5G device ranking more or less follows the market share of overall smartphones in the country, which is dominated by Samsung.

In total, at the time of Nince's presentation, there were 182 5G smartphones certified by Anatel in the country.

Credit: Anatel's presentation

INFOVIAS

During the presentation, Nince also updated the launch schedule for the next Infovias (routes) of the Norte Conectado program for the deployment of underwater fiber backbones through rivers in the Amazon basin.

Infovias 02 and 04 have already had licenses issued by the Brazilian navy, but are still pending clearance from environmental watchdog Ibama. These permits were filed and are being analyzed by the environmental agency.

Infovia 03 was the latest to be completed. The launch lasted 18 days and was concluded on March 23.

The launches of Infovias 02 and 04, when authorized, are expected to take 29 and 11 days, respectively, said Nince.