Telefónica, Claro and TIM are awarded the right to operate 5G telephony in Brazil

Telefónica Brasil, TIM and Claro, the three largest mobile telephony operators in Brazil, were awarded concessions to operate 5G technology throughout the country in the 3.5 GHz band, the most used worldwide, in an auction held in Brasilia.

As it is the most coveted radio frequency in the auction of concessions for the rights to use different bands in Brazil, to which 15 companies signed up, the National Telecommunications Agency (Anatel, regulator) divided the 3.5 GHz band into four national batches of 80 MHh each and eight regional licenses.

Claro, a subsidiary of the Mexican Telecom América and which has 26% of the Brazilian mobile telephony market, was awarded the first national lot by offering 338 million reais (about US $ 60.5 million) for the license and surpassing the other two candidates , Telefónica Brasil and TIM, which chose not to increase their offers.

The second batch of operations throughout the country was awarded to Vivo, the brand used in Brazil by the subsidiary of the Spanish group Telefónica and which has 33% of the market share, with an offer of 420 million reais (about US $ $ 75.2 million).

For its part, the Italian TIM was left with the third national bloc by presenting the only valid offer for 351 million reais (about US $ 62.9 million).

Despite the fact that the three largest Brazilian operators made proposals for the fourth and last national batch, none could participate because they had already won the previous disputes, so no one presented valid offers.

Brazil began this Thursday to grant the rights to four radio frequency bands (700 MHz, 2.3 GHz, 3.5 GHz and 26 GHz) in what is considered one of the largest competitions in the sector in the world and which should attract investment for about 50,000 million reais (US $ 8,960 million).