5G, Oi, Anatel, Fiber and more
Eduardo Tude
5G in the World
- The number of 5G cell phones in the world went from 15.4 million in 2019 to 401 million in 2020. (5G Americas /Omdia)
- At the end of 2020, China had more than 250 million cell phones, the United States/Canada 20 million and South Korea 13 million.
- 15 of the 25 fastest 5G smartphone models in the U.S. are from Samsung, including the fastest average download speed (Galaxy S21 5G) according to tests conducted by OpenSignal.
5G in Brazil
- The obligations of the 5G notice may correspond to 90% of the economic value of the frequency bands. The remaining 10% must be paid by the companies to the Government.
- Highline, a subsidiary of the Digital Colony investment fund, analyzes participation in the 5G bidding process, aiming to offer wholesale services to regional providers.
- Claro announced a partnership to implement private 5G networks in a WEG plant in Santa Catarina.
Oi
Claro, TIM and Vivo forwarded a request for prior consent from Anatel to complete the acquisition of Oi Mobile. According to the request, the business would be implemented in four phases:
- Organization of Mobile Special Purpose Societies (SPEs) corresponding to the share of each operator.
- Authorization Request for SMP and SLP for Mobile SPEs and drop-down and segregation of Oi Mobile assets, obligations and rights for Mobile SPEs.
- Transfer of control of the Mobile SPEs to Claro, Telefônica and TIM (after ANATEL's Prior Consent and CADE's Approval).
- Incorporation of the Mobile SPEs by Claro, Telefônica and TIM within 18 months.
- In the distribution among the three operators, Oi Mobile cell phone base, including corresponding assets and network elements, was mostly allocated to the operator with the lowest market share in each area.
- Oi changed the date of the disclosure of its 2020 results to this second (Mar. 29th).
- Oi's ON shares lost 2.7% in the week and PN 1.7%.
Anatel
- Anatel approved the new regulation for the continuity of the provision of STFC (RCON), which replaces the regulation of reversible assets. The regulation reaffirms the LGT concept that at the end of the concession, only the possession of reversible assets, and not their property, will be returned to the Federal Government.
- The new grants for satellite exploration rights will not need to go through a bidding process, and can be made through administrative procedure.
- Anatel approved the conversion of a R$ 12.6 million fine applied to Claro into a 4G mobile network obligation in 16 locations in seven states.
- Anatel published the Report on the level of tax burden and cost of service, which presents a summary of comparative tables of the ICT price basket of the International Telecommunications Union (ITU). Brazil has the highest tax burden in the world for fixed BL (40.2%) and is the fourth country with the highest tax burden on cell phones (40%).
- The MCom budget for 2021 approved by Congress reached R$ 3.3 billion, but without the release of FUST funds.
Fiber
- Grupo Conexão (Triple Play Participations) presented net revenue of R$ 378.2 million in 2020, with an increase of 18.7% in relation to the previous year.
- In 2020 the Group acquired Agily (Ceará), Mega (SP), the Outcenter operation in Minas Gerais and part in Bahia, and Cortez, in Rio Grande do Norte.
More highlights
- 46.2 million smartphones and 2.6 million traditional cell phones were sold in Brazil in 2020, 6% and 34% respectively lower in 2019. (IDC)
- Grupo Globo's revenue in 2020 (R$ 12.5 billion) was 22.1% lower than in 2019.
- TIM announced that Microsoft and Oracle were selected as partners in the migration to the cloud of 100% of the operator's IT functions.
- Claro and AWS (Amazon Web Services) announced partnership to generate new business opportunities and to accelerate the adoption of cloud-based applications.
- TIM was authorized by the Board of Directors to contract a loan of up to R$ 4 billion.
- TIM and Enel will build two solar plants with the capacity to supply the consumption of 716 TIM sites in Bahia.
- Zenvia and D1 will unite in a single company, with annual billing of around R$ 500 million.
Coming Weeks
- Oi's 2020 Results: March 29th
Accesses in Jan/21, 5G, Fiber, Oi and more
Eduardo Tude
Accesses in Jan/21
- Brazil registered net adds of 1.3 million cell phones in January, of which 1.0 million were postpaid and 260 thousand were prepaid.
- Claro led mobile growth in January with net additions of 903 thousand cell phones, similar to what happened in 2020.
- Claro is the fastest mobile broadband operator, both for download (18.6 Mbps) and upload (8.7 Mbps) according to TUTELA.
- Fixed broadband showed negative net adds (-549 thousand) in part due to SCM providers who reported in December but didn't do so in January. Claro (-5 thousand), Vivo (-24 thousand) and Oi (-22 thousand) presented negative net adds.
- Pay TV lost 184 thousand accesses and fixed telephony 1.2 million accesses.
5G
The announcement of the 5G auction, accompanied by the technical study of pricing bands, was sent to Federal Audit Court this week.
The commitments of the 5G auction to cover with 4G locations counting more than 600 inhabitants without mobile telephony, it may be reduced from 14 thousand locations (100%) to 8 thousand (43%).
Ericsson lainched a 5G production line at its factory in São José dos Campos.
According to GSA in Mar/21:
- 176 operators in 76 countries had launched 5G networks, 7 of which in 5G standalone;
- 105 operators are deploying or had launched 5G networks in Band C (3.5 GHz);
- 4 operators are investing in the 2.3 GHz band, 1 in commercial operation.
The UK 5G auction received bids from 4 mobile operators, totaling £ 1.36 billion per 200 MHz sold in the 700 MHz and 3.6 GHz to 3.8 GHz bands.
Fiber
- Telebrás net revenue grew 30.6% in 2020, reaching R$ 267 million. The loss of R$ 106 million was 55% lower.
- Copel Telecom posted net revenue of R$ 387 million in 2020 with an EBITDA margin of 31.6%.
- Vero increased its investment plan for the period 2019-2023 from R$ 750 million to over R$ 1 billion (Valor).
- Vero Internet acquired Plug Internet, which brings together 3 companies from Minas Gerais and signed a contract with Oi, to use the FTTH network in cities in this state.
Oi
- Oi concluded the sale of its Data Centers to Piemonte Holding.
- Oi announced the change of the brand of its subsidiary Brasil Telecom Call Center to TAHTO. BTCCE has 13 thousand employees and 5 thousand service positions.
- Oi's ON shares lost 2.1% in the week and PN 1.6%.
More Highlights
- 94% of Brazilian rural producers have cell phones, 68% of which are smartphones. (Teletime)
- The Foreign Trade Chamber of the Ministry of Economy (Camex) reduced the import tax rate on capital goods and computer and telecommunications goods by 10%.
- The National Congress overturned the vetoes of the President of the Republic to the new Fust law approved in 2020. The obligation to use FUST resources to connect all Brazilian public schools by 2024 is back.
- Meanwhile, the President was fully vetoing the bill approved by Congress to transfer R$ 3.5 billion from FUST to states, municipalities and the Federal District to guarantee Internet services for students and teachers from the public school system.
- PTT SP (IX.br) reached a peak of traffic exchange of 16 Tbps on March 7th, with a 60% growth in relation to March 2020.
- The pressure from developers on app stores is beginning to take effect. Google has announced that it will reduce service fees charged from apps on the Play Store from 30% to 15% for the first US$ 1 million of annual revenue. Apple had previously announced a similar reduction for applications that earn less than US$ 1 million a year.
Coming Weeks
- Oi's 2020 Results: March 25th
Quality survey, Fiber, 5G and more
Eduardo Tude
Anatel's survey on satisfaction and quality in 2020
Brisanet led in fixed broadband quality for Brazil. The distribution of the leadership by states was:
- Claro: 9 states
- Vivo: 5 states
- Brisanet: 4 states
- TIM and Algar: 3 states
- Oi and Unifique: 1 state
On mobile telephony, Claro led the survey in postpaid and Algar in prepaid.
In Pay TV the leadership was conquered by Claro and in fixed telephony by Unifique.
Fiber: AmericaNet and EllaLink
- Americanet was authorized by the Ministry of Communiciation (MCom) to issue incentive debentures in the amount of up to R$ 250 million for investments in São Paulo and Mato Grosso do Sul.
- EllaLink announced the conclusion of the marine installation of the Brazil-Europe submarine cable, which connects the city of Fortaleza to Sines (Portugal).
5G
- AArtur Coimbra will be responsible at MCom for public policies for the 5G notice, sharing this effort with his position as corregidor in the National Data Protection Authority (Autoridade Nacional de Proteção de Dados - ANPD).
Oi
- Oi's ON shares had loss of 6.0% in the week and PN increased 1.7%.
More highlights
- Eduardo Ricotta ceases to be the President of Ericsson for the southern region of Latin America and Vinícius Dalben temporarily takes over the position.
- Ericsson and Nokia will not participate in the face-to-face edition of Mobile World Congress 2021 scheduled for June 28th.
- The National Data Protection Authority (ANPD) published its Internal Regulations in the Federal Official Gazette.
- The Emergencial PEC, approved in the second round by the Chamber of Deputies, allows the government to use the surplus of public funds such as FUST for payments of public debt for a period of two years.
Coming Weeks
- Oi's 2020 Results 2020: March 25th
TIM, Fiber, 5G, Algar and more
Eduardo Tude
TIM: Strategic Plan
TIM presented details of its participation in the purchase of Oi mobile at TIM Brasil Day 2021. It will have:
- 40% of Oi's cell phones (14.5 million), being 40% postpaid;
- 38.3% of Oi's sites (7.2 thousand), being 60% at the same location or near it;
- 55% from the total of Oi's spectrum, other 45% with ramin with Vivo;
- 44.3% from the total paid (R$ 7.0 billion).
The information presented by TIM confirms Teleco's comment that predicted that TIM would keep all Oi mobile phones in the Midwest region (3.1 million), Rio Grande do Sul (1.5 million) and Rio de Janeiro/Espírito Santo (3.0 million).
We also highlight the following points of TIM Brasil Day 2021:
- TIM is seeking strategic partnerships with Unicorns in which access to its customer base would be exchanged for a stake in the company;
- TIM will migrate its IT systems (CRM, Billing, Charging, Ordering) to the cloud by 2023;
- TIM has no interest in acquiring the 2.3 GHz and 700 MHz frequencies in the 5G auction.
Fiber: TIM and Vivo
- TIM selected IHS (Tower Company) to sign an exclusive agreement to negotiate terms and conditions for the acquisition of equity interest in FiberCo. FiberCo brings together TIM's fixed broadband access network, not involving the backbone and backhaul.
- Telefônica Brasil sold 50% of Fibrasil, a company that gathers part of its FTTH network, to the Canadian fund CDPQ.
5G
- Anatel published the draft notice that clarifies details in relation to service commitments with 5G release 16.
- Smartphones with 5G DSS represent 1% of accesses in the areas of the 14 cities where this technology is available on Claro's network.
- Samsung launched the Galaxy A32 5G smartphone, with a suggested price of R$ 2,699. It supports 5G DSS but not release 16.
- Huawei was the company that applied for the most patents in the world in 2020 (5.5 thousand), followed by Samsung (3 thousand). LG, Qualcomm and Ericsson rank 4th, 5th and 6th respectively. (WIPO)
- Huawei is the company with the most global patents in 5G (15.4%). (IPlytics/Statista)
- Ericsson activated 79 5G networks in the world in 2020, more than Nokia (44). But Nokia has more 5G commercial contracts (139) than Ericsson (122).
Results 2020: Algar
- Algar's net revenue grew 10.5% in 2020, 12.9% in B2B and 7.5% in B2C. The EBITDA margin reached 44% and the recurring net income hit R$ 202 million.
- Capex of R$ 462 billion was 38.8% lower than the previous year. The company reduced its investments in the expansion of fiber networks, to focus on connecting customers.
Oi
- Oi's ON shares raised 5.8% in the week and PN 4.3%.
More Highlights
- DNIT has published rules on how telecom operators can occupy federal highway domain strips free of charge.
- Anatel published the technical requirements for the operation of restricted radiation equipment, such as WiFi 6 at 6 GHz.
- Anatel accredited BwTech, Ookla, OpenSignal and Tutela Technologies to provide (free of charge) data to monitor the performance of mobile and fixed broadband in Brazil.
- More than 12 million households in the U.S. have already canceled their domestic broadband service and switched to mobile broadband only for their internet needs. There are more than 15 million households in the US that have only mobile broadband, of which more than three million have never had fixed broadband. (Parks)
- Boingo, a Wi-Fi and distributed antenna system (DAS) company, was bought by Digital Colony for US$ 854 million.
Coming Weeks
- Oi's 2020 Results: March 25th
Eduardo Tude
President and partner at Teleco (consultancy company), works since 2002 as analyst of Telecom market, coordinating consulting projects, publishing weekly articles, preparing sector reports and presenting workshops.
Telecom Engineer (IME 1978) and MSc. in Telecom Engineering (INPE 81), Tude is member in the Mobile World Congress’s judging commission for the Global Mobile Awards, in Barcelona, and was also a visiting specialist professor at Unicamp.
Tude had many positions in the management of Telecommunication companies in areas like Mobile Systems (Ericsson), Optical Networks (Pegasus Telecom) and Satellites (INPE).
