Teleco Blog

12
7/2020

Telecom in May, 5G, Oi, IoT and more

Eduardo Tude

Telecom in May (Anatel)

Broadband grew in May, while other services showed negative net adds in the month;
Competitive operators led the growth of broadband with fiber in May counting net adds of 559 thousand accesses, followed by Oi (123 thousand), Vivo (75 thousand) and Claro (20 thousand);
May results confirmed trends presented in the previous month, with pay TV, cell phones and fixed telephones showing negative net adds in the month.

Claro launched 5G in Brazil at an event held at Allianz Parque. It will be available in areas of higher traffic demand in the capitals of São Paulo and Rio de Janeiro;
Claro's 5G will use the its existing frequencies that will be shared with 4G using Dynamic Spectrum Sharing (DSS), which allows the dynamic allocation in milliseconds of spectrum resources between the two services, maximizing spectral efficiency;
TIM announced that it intends to launch its first 5G commercial networks in September in the cities of Bento Gonçalves, Itajubá and Três Lagoas;
Release 16 of the 5G specifications was completed by 3GPP on schedule. It will allow the provision of services with SLA for the B2B market, advancing in the detailing of the specifications of items such as Massive MIMO, Enhanced ultra-reliable low-latency communication (eURLLC) and Cellular-vehicle-to-everything (C-V2X);
The next release (17) runs "high risk of delay", according to 3GPP due to Covid-19.

Banco do Brasil, Caixa Econômica Federal and Itaú would be against the approval of the amendment to Oi's recovery plan, presented last month. Banks considered that “the amendment completely changed the basic premises of the business model” and also that “the proposal provides for the abatement of up to 60% of Tele's debt with some creditors”;
Oi's debt to these banks is R$ 7.83 billion. (Market monitor);
Oi's ON shares had 1.7% loss in the week and PN feel 1.3%.

IoT

Vivo Empresas will take 4G and IoT connectivity (NB-IoT and LTE-M) to Fazenda Guanabara at UISA, a bioenergy producing plant in Mato Grosso;
Huawei and Sul Americana de Metais (SAM) will use 5G in an unmanned mining project for the extraction and processing of iron ore in northern Minas Gerais;
The coordination of the Internet of Things (IoT) chambers will remain with the Ministry of Science, Technology and Innovations (MCTI).

Other highlights

Vivo activated its FTTH network in 11 more cities: Bebedouro, Cabreúva, Leme, Matão, Olímpia, Alfenas, Patos de Minas, São Mateus, Pelotas, Palhoça and Catalão;
Another MVNO on the market. It was lacunhed by the Barbosa Supermercados chain and will use the infrastructure of Dry, Surf's accredited MVNO;
TIM announced that it intends to activate 4G technology in all Brazilian municipalities in three years. 79.5% of cell phones in Brazil (without M2M) are 4G;
Cell phone sales in 1Q20 were 8.8% lower than in 1Q19. IDC estimates that the drop in 2Q20 will reach 32%;
Operators are moving to offer financial services to their customers. Claro announced a partnership with Banco Pan and TIM with C6 Bank;
The new notice to sell Sercomtel's control was published. The amount established is R$ 130 million, of which R$ 50 million in cash. The previous auction held in February had no interested parties;
Samsung Electronics forecasts a 7% drop in sales of smartphones and TVs in 2Q20, but a 22.7% growth in its operating profit;
Seaborn, a company with a submarine cable between Brazil and the USA (Seabras-1), concluded the process of judicial recovery of its subsidiaries with the approval of the reorganization plan. The investment fund Partners Group took control of the operation.

Coming Soon

Jul/16 - Enrich Cala Episode 2: Migrating the industry to the cloud
https://telecomwebinar.com/enrich-cala-2020/
14/07 – Keysight: 5G NR Dynamic Spectrum Sharing (DSS): Overview and Testing Challenges

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).

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Telecom in May, 5G, Oi, IoT and more