CADE: Google and Nextel
- CADE (Administrative Council for Economic Defense) has opened an investigation against Google to verify if the company has forced vendors to include its search engine and Chrome browser on the phones they commercialize in exchange for an Android license;
- This stance was investigated by the European Commission, which fined Google more than € 4 billion. The US Department of Justice would also be preparing for an antitrust investigation by Google;
- Vivo and TIM presented to CADE restrictions on Claro's acquisition of Nextel. Oi has informed CADE that it does not oppose the deal.
Smartphones Apps in Brazil
The main highlights of the survey on the use of Apps in Brazil (Panorama Mobiletime/Opinion Box - June/19) are:
- 38% are subscribers of streaming services for movies and series whose content is accessed predominantly via app on the smartphone (92% of these Netflix);
- 20% are subscribers of music streaming (61% Spotify);
- 59% have the WhatsApp app and 47% have Facebook;
- 13% have no phone call app and 25% SMS on Homescreen;
- 19% bought an app for the smartphone;
- 58% have already made purchases within one app.
The survey was conducted in April 2019 with 1,763 Brazilians who access the Internet and have smartphones.
5G
- South Korea has hit the mark of 1 million 5G mobile phones this week;
- Germany concluded, after 52 days, the auction of 5G frequencies. The four bidders pledged to pay a total of € 6.6 billion. The biggest bids were from Deutsche Telekom and Vodafone;
- Auctions organized to maximize the price paid for the frequencies end up diverting resources that would be invested in the network. This happened in Europe with 3G frequency auctions and seems to be repeating itself in 5G.
Anatel: FOX, AT&T and PERT
- Anatel responded to Claro's request and determined that FOX will condition access, to its programmed channels available in Internet applications, to Conditioned Access Service -SeAC (Pay TV) subscribers. Anatel also initiated the Subsidies Procedure under the theme;
- Unlike video on demand (VOD), such as the Netflix service, the transmission of linear programming channel as streaming over the internet is a Conditioned Access Service, as determined by the SeAc Law and must be done by SeAC providers;
- The acquisition of Time Warner by AT&T is already on Anatel's Council. The technical area of the Agency is suggesting to the Council that it should give AT&T an 18-month deadline to resolve the corporate situation that creates the conflict, which means selling Sky or disposing of its shares to a trustee, or stop to act as a programmer in Brazil. (source: Teletime)
- Anatel's Council approved the Telecom Networks Structural Plan. Now it must be forwarded to the Ministry of Science, Technology, Innovation and Communication to serve as the basis for defining public policies for the sector. The expectation is that it will be considered in the definition of the commitments of the 5G frequency auction to be carried out at the beginning of 2020.
Oi
- Oi informed the CVM that, differently from press reports, it did not receive a proposal from Angolan state oil company Sonangol to sell 25% of its stake in operator Unitel (Angolan operator);
- Oi's ON shares showed losses of 2%% on the week and the PN of 0%.
Other Highlights
- The Ministry of Economy reduced to zero import tax rates on more than 30 computer and telecommunications goods, which are not produced in the country. The exemption will be valid until December 31, 2020;
- Telecom services fell by 1.3% in Apr/19 in relation to Apr/18. On the other hand, IT services grew 12.8% in this period (IBGE Monthly Service Survey);
- Sales of equipment and supplies for office, computing and communication dropped by 10.5% in the comparison of Apr/19 with April/18 (IBGE Monthly Industrial Survey);
- Serpro launched the LGPD portal (www.serpro.gov.br/lgpd) as a way to contribute to the disclosure in the General Law of Protection of Personal Data. (Telesyntese)
Other International Highlights
- Telecom Italia plans to cease trading on the New York Stock Exchange (NYSE). The company will remain listed on the Italian Stock Exchange;
- Ericsson has published another edition of its Mobility Report with mobile market projections in the world and major regions;
- Huawei has decided to create its own operating system and is registering the brand in several countries including the USA;
- Huawei is asking for US$ 1 billion in licensing fees for more than 230 of its patents for US carrier Verizon.
Broadband in April
- Claro led fixed broadband growth in April (+42 thousand accesses), followed by Copetitive operators. Vivo (-43 thousand) and Oi (-31 thousand) presented negative net adds. Comptitive operators' net adds would have reached 348 thoussand if all the companies that had reported estatistics in March had also done it in April. The group of all the operators, except Claro, Vivo and Oi, is considered as Competitive Providers;
- Competitive companies led net adds accumulated along the year until April (+537 thousand), followed by Claro (+124 thousand). Vivo (-115 thousand) and Oi (-168 thousand) presented negative net adds in the period.
Pay TV in April
- Brazil lost 169 thousand Pay TV subscribers in April, accumulating losses of 446 thousand subscribers along the year;
- The losses accumulated along the year occur in DTH (-409 thousand) in cable TV (-180 thousand) and are partly compensated by the growth of IPTV/FTTH (+142 thousand);
- Claro (-263 thousand), SKY (-167 thousand), Vivo (-64 thousand) and Oi (-11 thousand) accumulated losses in the first four moths of the year;
- The same happens in the United States that lost 1.3 million Pay TV subscribers in 1Q19, more than it had lost in 1Q18 (305 thousand). (Leichtman Research Group)
Fixed Telphony in April
- Brazil lost 148 thousand fixed telephones in April, accumulating losses of 1.1 million telephones along the year;
- Vivo (-477 thousand), Oi (-406 thousand) and Claro (-306 thousand) registered the biggest losses along the year until April.
5G
Anatel published the regulations with the conditions of use of the 2.3 GHz and 3.5 GHz bands. These frequencies, which will be part of the auction for 5G frequencies to be performed by Anatel at the beginning of next year, shall be used by systems that employ time division duplexing (TDD).
In the announcement of frequencies for 5G, which will be placed shortly in public consultation, the following frequency bands will be in the auction:
- 2.3 GHz (100 MHz), being 1 block of national 50 MHz, 1 block of regional 40 MHz (granularity "Federation unity). 1 block of 10 MHz which will be dedicated to specific applications (public security, infrastructure and utility services, etc.);
- 3.5 GHz (300 MHz), being 3 blocks of national 80 MHz and 1 block of regional 60 MHz;
- 26 GHz: eight blocks of national 400 MHz.
Frequencies in 700 MHz (10 + 10 MHz), that remained from the previous auction, will be part of the auction too.
5G networks operating in South Korea will present great growth of data consumption. Users of LG's network, who consumed 400 MB by day with 4G, will consume 1.3GB in 5G. New services with funções AR and VR already represent 20% of the data consumption in 5G, in comparison with only 5% for 4G.
U.S. frequency auction in 24 GHz collected in both first phases US$ 2.7 billion.
Other highlights
- Average download speed for mobile networks in Brazil is 13.0 Mbps and Upload is 4.5 Mbps according to Opensignal;
- Claro Brasil was considered the operator having the highest speed for mobile broadband (29.48 Mbps) among the operators of the main Latin American countries, by Speedtest;
- Oi's ON stocks presented loss of 2.0% in the week and PN of 1.8%;
- Brazilian GDP for information services in 1Q19 increased 0.3% in comparison with 4Q18, while GDP fell 0.2% in this comparison;
- Vivo initiated its operation in FTTH network in Uberaba;
- Amos Genish will command the unity for development of products of digital retail of BTG Pactual bank;
- Gartner's survey indicated that Samsung led smartphones world sales for end users in 1Q19 with 19.2% of market share, followed by Huawei (15.7%) and Apple (11.9%);
- Huawei appealed for U.S. Justice in order to suspend the restrictions imposed against it by Trump govern, based in unproven security allegations.
Coming Weeks
