(Brasilia) The eagerly awaited tender for the 5G network in Brazil, a huge country of 213 million inhabitants, reported Friday 46.7 billion reais (about 10.5 billion CAN) exceeding “all expectations” of the government.
This amount is close to the initial forecasts of experts, who counted on 50 billion reais (11.2 billion CAN), between the operating licenses paid directly to the government and the planned investments.
This is the second most lucrative call for tenders in the country’s history, after oil auctions in October 2019 which brought in 70 billion reais (around 16 trillion CAN).
According to the Minister of Communications, Fabio Faria, the amount paid by companies for spectrum operating licenses is “5 billion reais higher” than the floor set for auctions, several lots having been the subject of significant competition. .
“It’s an absolute success, we have seen many outbids, which show the great appetite of the market,” Marcos Ferrari, executive chairman of Conexis Brasil Digital, an association which represents five candidate companies told AFP.
The main telephone operators in Brazil, TIM, the Brazilian subsidiary of Telecom Italia, Telefonica Brasil, a subsidiary of the Spanish group Telefonica, with the Vivo brand, and Claro, of the Mexican group America Movil, have distributed the most coveted prizes, for the frequency 3.5 GHz.
For Eduardo Tude, from the consultancy firm Teleco, another “very positive” aspect is the fact that “beyond seeing the large operators obtain the frequencies necessary to develop their 5G network, new companies have also entered the market. “.
Six new operators have in fact acquired lots, including the start-up Brazilian Winity, created by the international investment fund Patria less than a year ago.
Operating licenses are for twenty years and companies will have to provide the service in the Federal District of Brasilia and the capitals of the 26 Brazilian states by July 31, 2022.
For other cities with more than 30,000 inhabitants, the service must be available between 2025 and 2028.
New Horizons
The challenge is significant, in a country where 40 million people do not yet have access to the internet, according to the latest official data from 2019.
“The whole of Brazil will be connected, no Brazilian will be deprived of the Internet,” Minister Fabio Faria commented on Twitter.
“I visited indigenous communities, what was asked of me? Internet ! », Declared President Bolsonaro Thursday, during the opening ceremony of the auctions.
Beyond allowing better Internet coverage in this country with continental dimensions, 5G should stimulate many economic sectors, in particular agribusiness, one of the main engines of Brazilian growth.
“The consumer is not going to see the difference beyond an improved speed for watching movies and videos. But from an industrial point of view, it is a new reality for factories, the productive sector, agribusiness ”, emphasizes Marcos Ferrari.
5G will open up new fields of internet use, with connected tractors and drones to monitor crops. In other areas, it will allow the development of self-driving cars or telemedicine instruments, according to experts.
Two networks were concerned by this historic call for tenders: the main network and a specific network which, for security reasons, will be for the exclusive use of the State.
For the latter, the Chinese private giant Huawei, at the center of a Sino-American rivalry, had been excluded from the outset.
Initially scheduled for the first half of 2021, the call for tenders had also been delayed due to Huawei’s particular situation.
Washington, which blacklisted the Chinese private company in 2019, accuses it of espionage and urges its Western allies not to use its services.