With a population of nearly 210mn, Brazil had 138mn active 4G smartphones at the end of April.
The number follows the activation of 8mn connections since January and is 25mn more compared to April last year, telcos association SindiTelebrasil reported.
According to the latest data from regulator Anatel, the technology accounted for 60% of all mobile accesses in service by April. Telefónica's Vivo leads with 31.2% of 4G accesses.
In terms of coverage, 4G LTE reached 499 new municipalities between April 2018 and April 2019, for a total of 4,503, where 95.8% of the population lives.
3G networks were available in 5,413 municipalities, covering 99.6% of the population.
Brazil had over 207mn broadband accesses through the mobile network by April, according to SindiTelebrasil.
Considering both fixed and mobile accesses, there were a total of 239mn broadband connections.
Of these, 31.3mn were fixed broadband, up 5.40% year-over-year, with 1.62mn new accesses in the 12 months to April, Anatel reported.
The growth in the period was driven mostly by ISPs and small regional carriers. According to Anatel, a small carrier is a company that holds less than 5% of each market in which it operates.
Meanwhile, national carriers Vivo and Oi lost 114,900 and 386,010 accesses in the 12 months to April. Of the largest players, only Claro grew, adding 374,940 clients.
In April, the sector saw the cancellation of 26,650 fixed broadband contracts.
Source: https://www.bnamericas.com/en/news/brazils-4g-coverage-approaches-100