Brazil’s telecommunications regulator Anatel has so far issued 66 spectrum licenses for private 5G networks.
This information is part of a report on the two-year operation of 5G in the country, taking into account the launch of the first networks in the 3.5 GHz band in July 2022 in Brasilia.
According to Anatel, the 66 authorizations, known as Limited Private Service (SLP) licenses, relate to the following frequency bands:
– 2390MHz to 2400MHz: 34 grants held by six industry verticals.
– 3700MHz to 3800MHz: 30 licenses held by six industries.
– 27.5GHz to 27.9GHz: Two licenses held by one industry.
These approvals refer only to projects where companies have applied to use spectrum licences and do not include private network projects where frequencies are auctioned off to mobile operators, for example.
While the number of permits seems high, many of these projects have yet to come to fruition.
And when it comes to 4G, Anatel’s head of concessions, Vinicius Karam, said at an event hosted by Mobile Time magazine last week that most licenses have been issued to utility companies(29).
These include companies in the electricity and water services sectors, such as NeoEnergia.
The next largest number of 4G licences were granted in general industry with 13, followed by agriculture-related (11), sports (10) and other sectors with 39 licences.
Two years of 5G
According to Anatel, in the two years since the launch of 5G on the 3.5GHz band, the service has reached about 30 million users in at least 589 cities.
The 5G auction at the end of 2021 established several commitments, including full 5G coverage in all 5,570 municipalities by the end of 2029.
Implementation should begin in larger cities and gradually extend to smaller cities.
The operators had pledged to increase the number of antennas in state capitals and federal territories to at least one for every 30,000 residents by July 31 of this year.
By the end of July next year, this coverage should be at least one antenna per 10,000 residents.
However, telecommunications companies and public authorities are making efforts to advance these initiatives.
“With the authorities’ monitoring, active city coverage is expanding every month, and shadow areas are constantly being mapped to develop new public policies and forecast investments for future auctions,” Anatel said.
Other data from Anatel shows that, taking into account the 2.3GHz band, there are now 23,098 5G antennas deployed in 815 municipalities.
These were installed by the six successful bidders in the auction: TIM (8,479), Claro (7,957), Vivo (5,391), Brisanet (1,075), Algar (182) and Unifique (14).
In a statement, TIM said it was the only operator to increase its 5G market share by 3.1 percentage points over the past 12 months. TIM claimed to have activated 5G in one region per day over the past three months.
The company says 5G covers more than 350 cities, covering 57% of the country’s urban population.
Overall, Claro led the 5G market with a 37.2% share by May, followed by Vivo with 37.1%.
The TIM was 25.6%.
