teleco.com.br

07/20/2010

3G: 3rd Cellular Generation in Brazil

This page: Keeps track of the evolution in the number of 3G cellulars in Brazil, and suppliers of 3G networks.

Brazil has 13.9 million 3G mobile accesses

Brazil closed Jun/10 with 13.9 million 3G mobile accesses, 10.4 million of them were WCDMA and 3.5 million modems. From the net adds of 624 thousand 3G accesses, 548 thousand were WCDMA handsets and 76 thousand modems. 3G reached 7.5% of the mobile accesses in Brasil.

The value for 3G modems (speeds . 256 kbits/s) was estimated by Teleco. Anatel released only the total of data terminals (3G and not 3G).

According to Anatel's figures WCDMA accesses jumped from 4.1 millions in Dec/09 to 7.5 millions in Jan/10. That's no doubt that it's the result of an adjustment made by operators in the number of mobile accesses inside their cellular bases, as had already happened in Oct/09.

Number of 3G cellular in Brazil

Thousands	Dec/09	Jan/10	Feb/10	Mar/10	Apr/10	May/10	Jun/10
WCDMA	4,091	7,465	8,100	8,707	9,217	9,868	10,417
EVDO	180*	150*	120*	-	-	-	-
3G Data Terminals > 256kbit/s	2,720*	2,867*	3,013*	3,194*	3,340*	3,417*	3,492*
Total 3G	6,990*	10,483*	11,233*	11,900*	12,556*	13,285*	13,909*

Note: Anatel started to relase this information in Jul/08. Promoted, however, many reclassifications which invalidated the data released before Mar/09.

* Estimated by Teleco

Number of 3G mobile accesses in Brazil

Million	4Q08	1Q09	2Q09	3Q09	4Q09	1Q10	2Q10
Accesses by device	1.0	1.5	2.1	2.5	4.3	8.7	10.4
Modems	1.1	1.5	1.9	2.3	2.7	3.2	3.5
3G Total	2.1	3.0	4.0	4.9	7.0	11.9	13.9
3G/total cell phones	1.4%	2.0%	2.5%	2.9%	4.0%	6.6%	7.5%

Source: Teleco and Anatel

Thousands	2009
Thousands	Mar	Apr	May	Jun	Jul	Aug	Sep	Oct	Nov	Dec
WCDMA	1,232	1,434	1,619	1,903	2,011	2,146	2,341	3,536	3,749	4,091
EVDO	254	250	240	228	218	212	205	198	191*	180*
3G data Terminals > 256kbit/s	1,536	1,647	1,731	1,869	1,984	2,107	2,304	2,400*	2,550*	2,720*
Total 3G	3,022	3,331	3,589	4,000	4,213	4,466	4,850	6,134*	6,490*	6,990*

Note: Anatel started to release this information in Jul/08. Promoted, however, many reclassifications so number before Mar/09 became inconsistant.

* estimated by Teleco

Consult: Huawei White Paper for Mobile Broadband

3G Networks Kick Off

Operators	Kick Off	Frequencies
Vivo (Telemig)	Nov/07	850 MHz and 1900/2100 MHz
Claro	Nov/07	850 MHz and 1900/2100 MHz
CTBC	Apr/08	1900/2100 MHz
Tim	Apr/08	1900/2100 MHz
Brasil Telecom	Apr/08	1900/2100 MHz
Oi	May/08	1900/2100 MHz
Vivo	Sep/08	1900/2100 MHz
Sercomtel	Dec/08	850 MHz

3G Net Suppliers

The following table presents the 3G net suppliers for operators in Brazil.

Operator	Core	Access equipments
Vivo	Ericsson	Ericsson and Huawei
Tim	Ericsson	Ericsson, Nokia-Siemens and Huawei
Claro	Ericsson and Nokia-Siemens	Ericsson, Nokia-Siemens and Huawei
Oi	Nokia-Siemens	Nokia-Siemens and Huawei
BrT	Ericsson*	Ericsson and ZTE*
CTBC	Huawei	Huawei
Sercomtel	Huawei	Huawei

* With the acquisition of BrT by Oi, Ericssom and ZTE were replaced by Nokia-Siemens and Huawei.

Quantity of 3G mobile accesses in São Paulo (May/09)

Thousands	Total	WCDMA	EVDO	Data Terminals*
Vivo	645	358	117	170
Claro	412	177	-	235
Tim	85	10	-	75
Oi	46	23	-	22
SP	1,188	568	117	503

*> 256 kbps, Source Anatel

Cell phones with WCDMA technology

Thousands	SP	SP 11*	SP interior
Vivo	358	249	109
Claro	177	100	77
Oi	23	18	6
Tim	10	8	2
SP	568	374	194
% Total Brazil	35.1%	23.1%	12.0%

* Capital and cities in metropolitan region, source Anatel

Vivo still has 117 thousand cellulars EVDO, being 87 thousands in Area Code 11.

Cellulars with data terminals (> 256 kbps)

Thousands	SP	SP 11	SP interior
Claro	235	157	78
Vivo	170	111	59
Tim	75	54	21
Oi	22	17	6
SP	503	338	164

Note that this total of data terminals (modems) doesn't include low speed data terminals, including in the Brazilian total of 4.3 million data terminals.