Will 3G accelerate broadband growth in Brazil?
Brazil ended the 3rd quarter of 2007 (Q307) with 6.95 million broad band accesses and density of 3.7 accesses per 100 inhabitants. The quarter had record growth, with net adds of 534 thousand accesses, because of Telemar (Oi)'s good performance which had net adds of 127 thousand accesses in the quarter.
Nota: Net inclui Vivax
The accumulated growth in the last 12 months continued being around 1.8 million broad band accesses, this results is being the same since Q106. If Brazil continues keeping this rythm will only reach density of 10 broad band accesses per 100 inhabitants in 2014. Europe and United States have density over 20 accesses per 100 inhabitants.
The main broad band in Brazil are fixed telephony concessionaires (Telemar, BrT and Telefonica) with ADSL and Net, pay TV operator.
Net (including Vivax) leads broad band growth in Brazil with more net adds than their competitors and fighting for the 3rd position with Telemar.
One of the problems of broad band growth in Brazil is the restricted coverage of this service. In Teleco's research the broad band offered by Pay TV and Fixed telephony operators is working in just 42.5% of the brazilian cities. The offer in these cities reach a limited geographic area. This coverage is also supplied by small internet providers wich work in 74.2% of the cities. The modification of the universalisation commitments of fixed telephony concessionaires, with the exchange goals of the Installation of Service (PST) for the construction of backhaul to not attended cities can contribute to the solution of this problem.
Although the progress in broadband access speed in Brazil, it still have serious limitations. Connections with speeds up to 8 Mbit /s are available in major cities such as Rio de Janeiro and Sao Paulo, which does not occur, however, in most cities.
According to this situation, wireless connections appear as an alternative to enlarge the supply and geographical coverage. In the United States, for example, mobile wireless broadband connections grew from 3.1 million in 2005 to 21.9 million in 2006 (more details).
In Brazil, Claro and Telemig began its 3G operations (WCDMA / HSDPA) in Nov/07. It is expected that in 2008 these and other mobile operators deploy their 3G networks with a coverage throughout the national territory.
With 3G these operators will offer a wireless broadband connection with speeds close to 1 Mbit/s and prices that vary with the amount of transferred data in the month.
The following table shows the monthly limit on Giga Bytes for packages that cost R$ 99.9. Vivo and Giro (Embratel) offer these services with 3G network (EVDO).
| Month Price | R$ |
Month Limit |
| Telemig | 99.9 |
5GB |
| Claro | 99.9 |
2GB |
| Vivo | 99.9 |
1GB |
| Giro (EVDO) | 99.9* |
5GB |
*With the rent of modem
These prices are competitive with those offered by fixed telephony and Pay TV operators to broadband connection with speeds of 1 Mbit/s.
| Month Price | R$ |
Commentary |
| Telemar | 152.80 |
R$ 34.90 in Belo Horizonte and Rio de Janeiro |
| BrT | 99.90 |
- |
| Telefonica | 89.90 |
- |
| GVT | 119.9 |
15 GB |
| Net | 99.90 |
2 Mbit/s. Price decreases to 79.90 with TV |
| Ajato | 99.90 |
- |
While the fixed broadband continues being the best option to "heavy users" with great usage of the Internet, 3G compensates the limitation on transfer rate with the flexibility of wireless broadband that can be used anywhere where there is operators coverage. In the absence of 3G coverage can be used GPRS/EDGE network .
Wireless Broadband still has packages options with lower prices that can fit in the pocket of users with less purchasing power. Telemig is offering packages of 2 MB from $ 4.90.
Wireless broadband offer combined with a package of unlimited access to Wi-Fi networks is another option that has been very successful in the United States.
Finally, WiMAX is also an alternative to offer wireless broadband fixed or mobile. The expectation is that the auction of frequencies for WiMAX occur in 2008.
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