Brazil has 89,731 mobile base stations in service across the country’s 5,570 municipalities, BNamericas reports, citing information from the National Telecommunications Agency (Agencia Nacional de Telecomunicacoes, Anatel). As per the report, TIM Brasil tops the list with 32,305 cell sites, followed by Telefonica Brasil (Vivo, 31,991) and Claro Brasil (24,685). In terms of regional players, Algar Telecom leads the way (383), followed by Brisanet (309), Sercomtel (44), Ligue Telecom (twelve), Ligga Telecom (two) and Winity Telecom (one).

Of the overall cell site figure, 17,271 (19.2%) support 5G services, with infrastructure spread across 513 municipalities. As with the total, TIM leads the way with 7,590 cell sites, ahead of Claro (5,690), Vivo (3,542), Brisanet (309), Algar (139) and Ligga Telecom (one).

TeleGeography notes that Brisanet and Winity Telecom both acquired 5G-suitable spectrum in November 2021’s multi-band spectrum auction. Brisanet launched commercial 5G services in parts of the north-east in August, while Winity is currently working on the deployment of an open access 700MHz network. In terms of the smaller players’ 5G activity, Algar launched a Non Standalone (NSA) 5G network in December 2021 using the 2300MHz band, while Ligga Telecom (formerly Copel Telecom) is targeting a 5G BFWA launch next month.