Fixed broadband in 2016
- The leaders Claro (Embratel/Net), Vivo and Oi lost market share in 2016 to other operators. They presented net adds of 597 thousand accesses in the year, against 278 thousand from Claro, 187 thousand from Vivo and 41 thousand from Oi. Total net adds (1.1 million) were smaller than 2015's (1.5 million).
- Brazil ended 2016 counting 26.6 million fixed broadband accesses, being 71% faster than 2 Mbps and 35% faster than 12 Mbps. According Akamai, the fixed broadband average speed in Brazil in 3Q16 reached 5Mbps.
Fixed Telephony in 2016
- Brazil ended 2016 with 41.8 million fixed telephones, 1.8 million less than in 2015. From this total, 24.7 million are incumbents and 17.1 million CLECs.
- Market leaders Vivo (34.5%), Oi (34.3%) and Claro (26.6%) presented negative net adds in the year of -547 thousand accesses, -771 thousand and -501 thousand respectively.
Results 2016: SKY
- SLY's net revenue presented fall of 4.9% in 2016. The operator lost 195 thousand pay TV subscribers in the period but gained 46 thousand in fixed broadband.
Oi
- District Court of Amsterdam, in the Netherlands, informed that it postponed its decision over the bankruptcy request of Oi's subsidiaries in that country.
- Oi's ON stocks raised 19% in the week and PN had growth of 23.3%.
Results 2016
Net revenue had growth in the year:
+20.4% at Google
+11.6% at AT&T
+8.1% at Comcast
+6.1% at SAP
+0.6% at Samsung
-1.7% at LG
-2.6% at Entel
-4.3% at Verizon
-9.8% at Ericsson
-11.1% at Microsoft
Other highlights
- Nextel's 4G network is already operating in the city of São Paulo. The frequency used is 1.8 GHz, acquired in the last Anatel'a auction.
- Anatel presented, in a public hearing, the proposals to change the General Plan of Competition Targets ("Plano Geral de Metas de Competição" - PGMC) and the Interconnection General Regulation.
- Anatel published the readjustment for calls from fixed telephone to mobile telephones. Vivo can increase the value of calls in 2.28%, Oi in 1.67%, Sercomtel in 1.35%, Claro in 0.88% and Algar Telecom in 0.10%.
- Vodafone's NB-IoT network started commercial operation.
Mobile Accesses in December
- TIM and Vivo were mobile growth leaders in December, while Claro and Oi presented negative net adds.
- TIM led prepaid net adds (+71 thousand accesses) followed by Vivo (-111 thousand), Claro (-2.0 million) and Oi (-3.2 million).
- Claro was first in postpaid net adds (314 thousand), followed by Vivo (300 thousand), TIM (228 thousand) and Oi (-3 thousand).
- 4G registered net adds of 4.0 million accesses in the month while 3G lost 5.4 million.
Pay TV in 2016
- Brazil ended 2016 counting 18.8 million pay TV subscribers, 311 thousand less than in 2015 and 772 thousand less than in 2014.
- The losses occur mainly in satellite pay TV (-352 thousand in 2016), while cable TV subscribers base remained stable in the year (+1 thousand).
- Oi was the growth leader in 2016 (+135 thousand), while Vivo (-67 thousand), Claro (-93 thousand) and SKY (-195 thousand) lost subscribers.
Meanwhile, Netflix ended 2016 counting 94 million subscribers, 49 million of them in the United States. The subscribers in other countries increased 47.8% in the year. Total revenue raised 30% in 2016. These results confirm the trend that points yo growth in video streaming in the internet.
Oi's Judicial Recovery
The intense negotiations continue:
- The group of creditors gathered by Moelis & Co. registered in the Rio de Janeiro Court of Justice its objection over the recovery plan proposed by Oi in September 2016.
- Oi incorporated to its news proposal, which is under preparation, the offer of stocks to creditors.
- Elliot and Cerberus funds are also preparing proposals.
Meanwhile:
- The Brazilian Supreme Court's decision over the need to send the PL 3453 to Senate will be released in February.
- Oi Livre mobile plan ended 2016 holding more than 14.7 million clients all over the country, 1.2 million of them in Rio de Janeiro.
- Oi's ON stocks increased 3.3% in the week and PN has loss of 0.8%.
Switching off Analog TV
- The possibility of postponing analog TV in São Paulo from March to August won’t be decided now by the Brazilian Ministry of Science, Technology, Innovation and Communication neither by the Gired (group coordinated by Anatel to promote the transition of the process), according to Tele.Síntese. The biggest resistance against the change comes from TV Record.
- Anatel decided that providers must to pay the 2nd and the 3rd installments, related to the cleaning the 700 MHz band, until the end of January. Both installments correspond to 60% of the total value of R$ 3.6 billion.
Other highlights
- The Brazilian Ministry of Science, Technology, Innovation and Communication MCTIC extended to February 6th the public consultation over the IoT National Plan.
- Eutelsat announced that its satellite 117 West B initiated commercial operation in ku band.
- Brazilian Air Force wants to launch public consultation in order to create a Public-Private Partnership that will be responsible by the project, installation, operation, management and repair of its entire Telecom network.
- In Feb/17, Brazilian Post Office’s MVNO will offer services in São Paulo (SP) focusing in lower income clients. EUTV is responsible for the infrastructure that uses TIM’s network.
- OpenSignal’s data released in Jan /17 points out that Claro has the biggest 4G speed in Brazil (27.5 Mbps), followed by Vivo (21.3 Mbps), TIM (14.6 Mbps) and Oi (12.1 Mbps). TIM, which got 59.2% of the connection time, and Vivo (56.8%) appear with the greater availabilities.
- Facebook owns the four (except games) most downloaded apps, from Android and Apple app stores in the world in 2016. Facebook, WhatsApp, Facebook Messenger and Instagram. Apps generated US$ 35 billion in revenue in both app stores in the year (Mobile Time).
Fixed Broadband in 2016 (Jan-Nov)
- Brazil presented net adds of 84 thousand fixed broadband accesses, accumulating 1.2 million net adds between January and November 2016.
- Claro (Embratel/Net) led net adds (312 thousand accesses) in this period, followed by Vivo (196 thousand). Oi registered net adds of 44 thousand accesses, less than TIM (70 thousand) and SKY (47 thousand).
- Other operators (except Claro, Vivo and Oi) present together more than half of the net adds (687 thousand accesses).
Prepaid in December
- Anatel’s preliminary data indicate that Brazil lost 5.3 million prepaid accesses in December, less than 12.1 million registered in Dec/15.
- Shrinkage of prepaid base is likely to continue in 2017, as users abandon the second chip. However, the losses may be smaller than the 20 million accesses counted in 2016 and the 28 million in 2015.
Oi
- TIM Brazil released note in which reaffirms no intention to promote merger with Oi.
- The District Court of Amsterdam, in the Netherlands, informed that until January 26th it will issue a decision over the bankruptcy request of Oi's subsidiaries in that country.
- The value of incumbents’ reversible assets will be calculated by two independent consultancies hired by Anatel. The calculations will be audited by a third company.
- Oi’s ON stocks had raised 12.3% in the week and PN 10.9%.
Other highlights
- Android answered for 93.5% of the smartphones sales in Brazil in the period between September and November of 2016, as informs Kantar Worldpanel. IoS got 3.1% and Windows 1.6%.
- Fiamma Zarife is the new Twitter’s new General Director for Brazil.
- iPhone is completing 10 years and it increases the pressure over Apple to came up with a new revolutionary product.
- 260 million PCs were sold in the world in 2016, 5.7% less than in 2015 (IDC).
- New policies of Verizon and AT&T can indicate that unlimited data plans days are close to an end inside the US market, due to the growth in consumption provoked mainly by streaming. In Brazil, the issue is matter of Anatel’s public consultation.
- European Community released a proposal for a regulation on privacy and electronic communication, which aims to modernize the rules for telecom operators and OTTs so these companies will be able to monetize clients’ data services with third-party sponsorship and advertisers.
Mobile Accesses in November
- Brazil registered positive net adds (+987 thousand mobile accesses) in November, what didn’t occur since February 2016.
- Claro was responsible for this positive result. It showed +840 thousand prepaid accesses as additions in November, after losing 3.2 million in October. Vivo, TIM and Oi presented negative net adds inside this segment in November.
- Claro was also the leader of postpaid growth in the month (449 thousand), followed by Vivo (374 thousand) and by TIM (201 thousand). November’s postpaid growth was the record growth for the year of 2016 (+1.1 million).
- There’s big expectation about the mobile telephony performance in December. Will net adds be similar to the values registered in the previous year?
- In Dec/15 prepaid showed net adds of -12 million and postpaid reached +275 thousand
Oi
- Oi is trying, in court, to reduce the value paid for the use of GlobeNet’s submarine cable capacity between Brazil and the United States.
- When Oi sold GlobeNet to a fund managed by BTG, in 2013, it acquired minimum capacity of 2.4 terabytes for 15 years, paying US$ 242 million each year. The operator wants to reduce this value to US$ 115 million, value that corresponds to the real use, which is below the hired minimum capacity.
- Anatel approved the entrance of the investment fund Société Mondiale in Stocks (Société) in Oi Group control block and the inauguration of new members in Oi S.A.’s Managament Council.
- Oi’s ON stocks presented growth of 1.9% in the week and PN raised 2.2%.
Other Highlights
- Amos Genish announced his departure from Telefonica Brasil’s Council in order to take up the position of “Chief convergence officer” at Vivendi. He’s responsible for the strategies of convergence between Vivendi’s content, platforms and distribution.
- Anatel reported its Regulatory Agenda for 2017/2018.
- Streaming services (video and music), development of apps and Data Centers starts to collect ISS in the city where the company has its headquarters, according to Complementary Law N. 157, sanctioned on December 29th 2016.
- In the Consumer Electronics Show, took place in Las Vegas, the highlights were the new smartphones models, virtual reality, autonomous cars and other IoT devices.
- AT&T announced that it will offer 1 Gbps mobile broadband accesses, following the examples of Verizon, Sprint and T-Mobile.
- Samsung estimates in US$ 44.1 billion its total revenue in 4Q16, less than the US$ 45.3 billion registered in 4Q15.
Happy New Year
The sector starts 2017 more optimist. 57% of the people who answered Teleco’s poll expects 2017 to be better or much better for the sector.
Pay TV in November
In November, pay TV lost subscribers again (-96 thousand), being -71 thousand DTH accesses and -29 thousand cable TV accesses. Losses totalized 353 thousand subscribers in the last 12 months.
Oi led the growth in the month (+12 thousand accesses) while SKY (-63 thousand), Vivo (-20 thousand) and Claro (-9 thousand) presented losses.
Fixed Telephony in November
Brazil lost 175 thousand fixed telephones in November, -104 thousand of them operated by incumbents and -71 thousand by CLECs. Losses totalized 1.8 million subscribers in the last 12 months.
Oi presented the biggest loss in the month (-98 thousand accesses), followed by Claro (-39 thousand) and Vivo (-19 thousand).
Fixed Telephony Concession
Anatel postponed to June 30th 2017 the date to renew fixed telephony concession contracts. On this day Anatel must have already approved the rules to transform these contracts to authorization through replacing commitments for investments in fixed broadband.
PL 3453, which regulates this transition, waits decision from the Brazilian Supreme Court to be sanctioned by the president or to be voted firstly by the Brazilian Federal Senate.
The debate over the values of reversible goods remained hot in the week, with Juarez Quadros (Anatel’s President), clarifying they worth R$ 18 billion instead of the reported R$ 100 billion.
Oi
Oi closed 2016 with market cap of R$ 2.1 billion, bigger than the R$ 1.9 billion registered in the end of 2015.
Oi’s ON stocks increased 2.3% in the week and PN had growth of 0.9%.
More taxes
The value paid for fixed telephony and postpaid cell phones subscribers will increase in January with the collection of ICMS (25 to 37% according to the state) over the value related to subscription, according to the decision made by the Brazilian Supreme Court.
Analog TV
The schedule of Analog TV shutdown is being reviewed. The plan is to shutdown Analog TV in the whole state of São Paulo on September 27th 2017. (Source: Valor Econômico).
Drones
Anatel clarified that drones, owned by companies or individuals, must to have their RF transmitters homologated by Anatel in order to avoid interferences in other telecommunications services.
Besides Anatel’s homologation, drone must have also ANAC’s authorization or the Certificate of Experimental Flight Authorization (Certificado de Autorização de Voo Experimental - CAVE) which allows the use of aircrafts only in experimental non-profit operations and in sparsely populated areas.
