Almost one in five mobile phone connections in the country use second or third generation technology

11/07/2022

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5G wireless technology is advancing faster in Brazil than its predecessor 4G, driven not only by promises of ultrafast mobile broadband but also by future innovations in industry (Internet of Things), transportation (self-driving cars), and medicine (robotic surgery). However, basic data services – such as vehicle tracking and payment with point-of-sale terminals – give survival to the 2G and 3G networks launched decades ago.

Almost one in five mobile phone connections in the country use second- or third-generation technology, according to the most recent data released by the Brazilian Telecommunications Regulatory Agency (Anatel). In August, 51.2 million 2G and 3G terminals were in operation in the country. The number of 5G accesses totaled 3.6 million at the time – less than 2% of the total number of active mobile lines in the country.

Despite being implemented later, 3G networks tend to disappear before 2G networks, said Leonardo Capdeville, chief technology officer at Telecom Italia’s TIM. “3G devices work on 2G networks, but the opposite does not happen,” he said. The deactivation of the third-generation networks is already happening in the United States, where the telecom heavyweight AT&T “retired” the technology early this year and T-Mobile did the same in mid-2022.

In Brazil, Anatel’s figures for each mobile technology include data terminals, which means that they do not necessarily reflect the use of 2G and 3G cell phones. These are mostly mobile connections used in the provision of vehicle telemetry and payment services. The maximum data transmission speed in 2G technology is 144 kilobits per second (kbps), a little less than three times the speed of a dial-up Internet connection (56 kbps).

Ismael Carlos do Nacimento — Foto: Leo Pinheiro/Valor

For more basic telemetry services, such as fleet tracking, for example, 2G is sufficient. The same is true for the older point-of-sale terminals for card payments. “Between 80% and 90% of customers pay by card,” said Ismael Carlos do Nascimento Carvalho, 33, who works at an Ipiranga gas station in downtown Rio de Janeiro. Communication failures in POS terminals are not common, he said. If a carrier’s network fails, the gas station still has wi-fi connection. Asked about 5G, Mr. Carvalho said he is not familiar with the new technology. “I only know that it is an evolution of 4G,” he said.

The use of 2G for communication between machines partly explains the resilience of the technology in the country – in August, there were 24.9 million second-generation connections in operation. In the same month, the number of 3G accesses was 26.3 million.

In the comparison between August 2022 and the same month last year, Anatel’s numbers show a greater retreat of the 3G base (-12.2%) compared to 2G (-7.1%). “There is a trend of migration from the 3G base to 4G,” said Mr. Capdeville. “It is impossible, for example, to access video content with quality having 3G service.”

Within TIM’s mobile telephony strategy, one priority is to extend 4G coverage to all 5,568 municipalities in the country by the end of 2023. Today, there are more than 5,400 cities with fourth-generation technology. In parallel, the operator is investing in the fifth generation – more than half of the 5G antennas in operation in Brazil are TIM’s.

Even so, among the cities served by the operator, there are still 198 with only 2G service. In another 112, 3G is the most advanced technology available. In TIM’s mobile network, the estimated percentage of 2G and 3G devices is around 5%.

Sought by Valor to detail the number of cities covered only with 2G and those where 3G is the most modern technology available, Claro and Telefónica declined to disclose these data.

In a statement sent by e-mail, Telefónica only highlighted the total number of cities covered with each technology: 4,607 cities with 4G; 4,886 with 3G; and 3,757 with 2G.

“The technologies are maintained to serve B2C and B2B clients, and we do refarming [reuse frequency bands for new technologies] without loss of coverage in the places where the activation of the new frequencies is made,” said Elmo Matos, head of network planning at Telefónica’s Vivo.

A survey by consultancy Teleco shows that the adoption of 5G in Brazil – measured by the number of handsets compatible with the technology – is happening faster than what happened with 4G. In the first 12 months in which the fourth-generation service became available, the number of compatible cell phones grew almost 24 times, jumping to 2.5 million from 105,000.

In the 12 months after the debut of 5G in the country, the jump was greater – to 3.4 million from 100,000, according to the consultancy. This figure refers to the total number of devices in July 2022.

*By Rodrigo Carro — Rio de Janeiro

Source: Valor International

https://valorinternational.globo.com/