Fixed Broadband in August
According to official data from Anatel, Claro led the growth of Fixed Broadband in August with net additions of 41 thousand accesses, followed by Vivo with 16 thousand. Oi and the Competitives (all other providers) had negative net additions of -12 thousand and -13 thousand respectively.
The net additions of Competitives are, however, distorted by the fact that many of them do not regularly report their access to Anatel:
- 409 competitive providers, who reported having 295 thousand accesses in July, didn't do so in August;
- Competitors would have presented net adds of 107 thousand accesses if only 4,711 providers, that reported accesses in July and August, were considered.
In other words, the 30.5 million Fixed Broadband accesses that Brazil registered in Aug/18 are underestimated, as well as the net additions of 32.5 thousand accesses for the month.
Mobile Telephony in August
In August, Vivo was the leader in:
- Losses in the prepaid (-841 thousand), much more than TIM (-260 thousand), Claro (-224 thousand) and Oi (-126 thousand). TIM saw its advantage, in relation to Claro in the prepaid, reduce to 34 thousand cell phones;
- Gains in postpaid (401 thousand) and postpaid without M2M (188 thousand). TIM was ranked second without M2M (142 thousand), followed by Claro (108 thousand) and Oi (110 thousand);
- Earnings at M2M terminals (213 thousand), followed by Claro (114 thousand), MVNOs (88 thousand), TIM (53 thousand) and Oi (24 thousand).
Brazil ended August counting 234 million mobile accesses, being 17.6 million M2M terminals. 4G mobile accesses (123 million) already represent 57% from the total of the Brazilian mobile accesses.
Pay TV in August
- Pay TV showed net additions of -37 thousand subscribers in August, but this number increases 11 thousand if we add the 48 thousand subscribers of Nossa TV, which did not report their numbers in August. SKY (8 thousand) and Oi (7 thousand) grew and Claro (-28 thousand) and Vivo (-6 thousand) lost market share;
- Pay TV lost 327 thousand subscribers in the year to August, the majority were DTH subscribers (450 thousand). IPTV / FTTH won 176 thousand subscribers.
Oi
- Local and long-distance domestic calls originating from Oi's pay phones in 11 northern and northeastern states will continue to be free until March 31st, 2019. The company has not yet met the availability targets for pay phones in these states;
- Marco Duarte Santos, elected to the Board of Directors of Oi, decided not to take office for personal reasons;
- Brookfield Asset Management reported having acquired a 5.65% stake in Oi S.A;
- The final balance of Oi's Financial Cashier was reduced by R$ 142 million in July/18, totaling R$ 4,677 million;
- Oi's ON shares didn't show a change in value in the week and the PNs dropped by 3.4%.
Blocking mobile devices
- Anatel has expanded cell phone blockade to IMEIs that are out of the GSMA database for another 10 states through the SIGA system. This action may inhibit irregular cell phone outlets, but is increasing cloning of handsets. Cases of cloning in the pilot phase of the project (Darea codes 61,62 and 64) increased from 5 thousand in Mar/18 to 50 thousand in Jun/18;
- In order for this process to be effective, it is necessary to make it difficult to tamper cell phone IMEI. There are currently several tutorials on the internet teaching how to change the IMEI of a device.
Fusions and acquisitions
- Digital Realty acquired Ascenty, a Brazilian Data Center company controlled by Great Hill Partners, for US $ 1.8 billion;
- Telefonica is negotiating the sale of its units in Mexico and Central America;
- Telecom Italia has confirmed that its board of directors is analyzing investment opportunities and options to sell non-core assets. Among them would be an offer for Nextel, whose shares rose with this news and other positive evaluations;
- The market has not well received the news that Sirius, a satellite radio company, has acquired about 85% of Pandora, a music streaming company. Investor confidence in the business fell, causing a decline in market value of $ 3.23 billion;
- US carrier Comcast won the UK Sky auction, beating Twenty-First Century in the third round with a sealed offer of £ 17.28/share (a total offer of $ 38.8 billion).
Other highlights
- Anatel and Aneel have put in public consultation the proposals of revision of the current joint norm that regulates the occupation of the electric energy poles by the telecommunications operators. They also intend to update by IGMP the price per point that would go from the current R$ 3.19 to R$ 3.80;
- The decree in the new PGMU should predict that the existing balance of investments be applied in the construction and operation of a 4G access network in 1,470 locations where there is no operator presence. There is, however, the fear that these 4G access networks will become part of the Fixed Telephony concession and will be considered reversible assets;
- Anatel held an event in Brasilia to discuss the satellite broadband market and the possibilities for expansion of the service;
- The Federal Accounting Court postponed the vote on the discussion on the Telebras / Viasat agreement due to a request from the minister Bruno Dantas;
- Foad Shaikhzade, president of Furukawa, expects a 20% to 22% growth in the fiber market in 2018, due to the increase in domestic demand in Brazil, with Claro and Oi returning to invest in FTTH, Telefônica accelerating its investments and regional suppliers maintaining the pace of purchases of the previous year. (Telesintese)
- Thiago Botelho was named anatel for the next two years;
- The FCC has approved the imposition of stringent guidance to local authorities in an attempt to accelerate the installation of small cells and reduce operator management costs. The new rules introduce 90-day deadlines and restrict fees for processing documentation and managing deployments in public spaces at "Reasonable Costs."
Coming Week
- Futurecom (from October 12th to 15th).
