Attended by President Jair Bolsonaro and organised by the Ministry of Communications and the National Telecommunications Agency (Anatel), Claro, Vivo and TIM was some of the biggest winners of the auction.
“There are almost 10,000 small locations that do not have internet and that will have internet. It is information that reaches the end of the line, these people integrating with Brazil and the world," said Bolsonaro.
“Today we deliver to Brazilian society an essential element for its future and present development: the expansion and improvement of conditions of digital connectivity from the completion of the 5G auction,” said Leonardo de Morais, president of Anatel.
Claro, owned by America Movil, won lot B1 in the 3.5GHz band paying a R$338 million ($60.3 million), a premium of 5.18%. It also secured lot E3 in the 2.3GHz band, which it won for R$750 million ($133.8 million), bringing the company's total spend to roughly R$1.63 billion ($290.9 million).
Vivo, a brand of Telefônica Brasil, and a subsidiary of Telefônica Group, walked away having secured lot B2 of 3.5GHz spectrum for R$420 million ($74,9 million), at a premium of 30.69%. Along with several other yet to be confirmed batches.
Italian telco TIM was awarded B3 batch of 3.5GHz for R$351 million ($62.6 million), at a premium of 9.22%. The company also bid along for several other batches, bringing its total spend to roughly R$976 million ($174.2 million).
Brazilian telco Brisanet Participacoes won the C4 batch in the 3.5GHz regional coverage band for R$1.25 billion ($223.3 million).
“We are going to have the first 5G in Latin America and we are going to show the world that Brazil is now in the digital economy. Brazil is now taking care of the digital transformation," said Fábio Faria, Minister of Communications.
"That Brazil is now a player and will become an innovation hub so that this great country can receive companies, investments in innovation, technology, companies that come from Asia, companies that come from Europe, that can settle in Brazil.”
Other bidders include Winity II Telecom acquired the 700MHz band for R$1.427 billion ($255 million), a price 805% higher than the required minimum.
In the 3.5GHz band of regional lots, winner included: Brisanet in the Northeast and Midwest, Sercomtel in the North and State of São Paulo, 5G South Consortium in the South region.
In addition, Cloud2U will operate across Rio de Janeiro, Espírito Santo and Minas Gerais and Algar Telecom, have operations planned locations across Minas Gerais, Mato Grosso do Sul, Goiás and São Paulo.
Overall Anatel predicts that it will raise R$50 billion ($8.9 billion) from the auction, of which R$40 billion ($7.1 billion) is earmarked for investments and R$10 billion ($1,7 billion) to go to the National Treasury.
5G is due to become available in select cities across Brazil by July 2022.
