Brazil
Opensignal is the independent global standard for analyzing consumers' connectivity experiences. Our industry reports are the definitive guide to understanding what happens when people use their mobile and broadband connections in their daily life.
Brazil
Opensignal is the independent global standard for analyzing consumers' connectivity experiences. Our industry reports are the definitive guide to understanding what happens when people use their mobile and broadband connections in their daily life.
Key Findings
Claro had the fastest overall mobile experience in Brazil
Brazilian users saw the fastest average overall download and upload speeds on Claro’s network. The operator retains the Download Speed Experience award with a score of 21.5 Mbps — 2.7 Mbps ahead of second-placed Vivo, down from the lead of 5.6 Mbps seen in the previous report. TIM and Vivo have closed the distance with Claro, as their Download Speed Experience scores increased by 2.5 and 2.7 Mbps respectively, while the winner’s score declined by 0.2 Mbps. Claro also wins Upload Speed Experience, with a score of 7.7 Mbps, while TIM is hot on Claro’s heels, just 0.2 Mbps behind — having whittled down Claro’s lead of 0.7 Mbps from the previous report.
TIM joins Claro on the winners’ podium for Games Experience and Voice App Experience
Claro was the outright winner for both Games Experience and Voice App Experience in the previous report. This time, TIM forces statistical ties against Claro in both categories, due to respective increases of 4.3 and 1.7 points for the two metrics, paired with declines in Claro’s scores. TIM moved up a category in Voice App Experience, from Poor (66-74) to Acceptable (74-80), which it now shares with Claro.
Claro retains the Video Experience award
Claro remains the sole winner of the Video Experience award with a score of 44.3 points. The operator beat TIM by 0.4 points, down from a 1.7 point lead in the previous report. All operators in Brazil saw increases in their scores, ranging from 0.7 points for Claro to 2.2 points for Vivo — and all of them placed in the Fair (40-55) category.
TIM remains the sole winner for Availability
TIM defends the Availability award with a score of 96.1%, recording an increase in its score of 0.5 percentage points compared to the previous report. This score reflects how long our users connected to 3G or better service on this network. Vivo was the runner-up, one percentage point behind the winner. Claro comes last, but it had the highest increase in its Availability score out of all operators in Brazil, of 1.1 percentage points.
Claro and TIM keep their consistency awards in a firm grip
Claro takes home the Excellent Consistent Quality award for the second time in a row in Opensignal reports, with a score of 66.1%. This score reflects the percentage of users’ tests on operator networks that met the minimum recommended performance thresholds to watch HD video, complete group video conference calls and play games. Meanwhile, TIM retains Core Consistent Quality (lower performance applications including SD video, voice calls and web browsing) with a score of 82.3% — only 0.3 percentage points ahead of Claro. While Vivo comes third for both awards, it narrowed the gap to its rivals, thanks to increases in its consistency scores coupled with the declines for those of Claro and TIM.
Mobile Experience Awards
Market Overview
In Opensignal's latest Brazil Mobile Network Experience report, Claro wins four awards outright and two jointly out of eight awards available. Claro’s count of awards won outright is down from six seen in the previous report due to TIM forcing statistical ties in two experiential awards — Games Experience and Voice App Experience, for which now Claro and TIM are joint winners. Both TIM and Vivo are catching up with Claro in other categories as well, as Claro’s leads over its competitors decreased in speed categories, Video Experience, and Excellent Consistent Quality. TIM remains the sole holder of Availability and Core Consistent Quality.
As a follow-up to the sale of Oi’s mobile unit, Opensignal has looked at the experience of our ex-Oi users post their migration to other hosts’ networks — and found that our data demonstrated that those users enjoyed significant improvements across all metrics – including speed, network availability and experiential categories. All Brazilian operators kicked off sale processes of the surplus base stations they received as the result of completing the purchase of Oi’s mobile assets — which they are obliged to do as part of government measures imposed to prevent anti-competitive practices. ANATEL has also extended a number of spectrum concessions, that were previously held by Oi but that were transferred to TIM and Vivo — 900 MHz and 1800 MHz licenses until the end of 2032, and the 1900 MHz and 2100 MHz license until 2038. Claro had to waive spectrum licenses transferred from Oi, as it has already reached its spectrum cap.
ANATEL also extended Vivo’s 850 MHz concessions until 2028, but revoked other operators’ 450 MHz licences, initially intended for expanding rural coverage.
Speaking of rural coverage — Brazilian market players undertake more initiatives to extend the mobile footprint in remote areas. ANATEL has given Vivo the option of expanding its 4G network mainly in the underserved areas in the north-eastern part of the country, instead of paying a fine of BRL45.2 million ($8.5 million). Claro has renewed contract with international satellite operator SES to deliver 4G/5G mobile services via satellite to around 260,000 Brazilians living in remote areas across the Amazon region. Meanwhile, open access mobile operator Winity Telecom plans to roll-out 800 cell sites across Brazil’s remote communities by December 2023, using its 700 MHz spectrum assets — and up to 5,000 cell towers by 2029, as Brazil’s first wholesale operator.
Our results in this report are based on measurements collected across all major mobile operators in Brazil – Claro, TIM and Vivo – over the period of 90 days between September 1, 2022 and November 29, 2022, to see how they fared. 5G measurements contributed to the overall scores. Alongside this analysis, we have also published a companion report — Brazil 5G Experience report — which analyzes the experience of our 5G users in Brazil when connected to 5G technology.
Overall Experience
National Analysis
Claro once again wins Video Experience outright, with a score of 44.3 points on a 100 point scale. Its lead over second-placed TIM has shrunk from 1.7 points in the previous report to 0.4 points, as Claro’s score improved by 0.7 points, while TIM’s increased by two points. It was Vivo that saw the highest increase out of all Brazil’s operators, of 2.2 points.
All operators placed in the Fair (40-55) category. This means users did not enjoy a good experience either for higher resolution videos (very slow loading times and prolonged stalling) or for some video streaming providers. The experience on lower resolution videos from some providers might have been sufficient though.
Definitions
Opensignal’s Video Experience quantifies the quality of video streamed to mobile devices by measuring real-world video streams over an operator's networks. The metric is based on an International Telecommunication Union (ITU) approach, built upon detailed studies which have derived a relationship between technical parameters, including picture quality, video loading time and stall rate, with the perceived video experience as reported by real people. To calculate video experience, we are directly measuring video streams from end-user devices and using this ITU approach to quantify the overall video experience for each operator on a scale from 0 to 100. The videos tested include a mixture of resolutions — including Full HD (FHD) and 4K / Ultra HD (UHD) — and are streamed directly from the world’s largest video content providers.
In addition to Video Experience, we report on the following metrics related to video experience:
- 5G Video Experience: The average Video Experience of Opensignal users when they were connected to an operator’s 5G network.
- Video Experience – 5G Users: The average Video Experience of Opensignal users with a 5G device and a 5G subscription across an operator's networks. It factors in 2G, 3G, 4G and 5G video experience along with the availability of each technology.
- 4G Video Experience: The average Video Experience of Opensignal users on an operator's 4G network.
- 3G Video Experience: The average Video Experience of Opensignal users on an operator’s 3G network.
National Analysis
Claro was the sole winner for Games Experience in the previous report. After TIM’s Games Experience score increased by 4.3 points and Claro’s dipped by 1.2 points, both operators are now joint winners, with scores of 60.8-60.9 points on a 100 point scale. Vivo brings up the rear, losing more than nine points to the joint winners — however, it saw an increase of 2.9 points since the last report.
Definitions
Opensignal’s Games Experience measures how mobile users experience real-time multiplayer mobile gaming on an operator’s network. Measured on a scale of 0-100, it analyzes how our users’ multiplayer mobile gaming experience is affected by mobile network conditions including latency, packet loss and jitter.
Games Experience quantifies the experience when playing real-time multiplayer mobile games on mobile devices connected to servers located around the world. The approach is built on several years of research quantifying the relationship between technical network parameters and the gaming experience as reported by real mobile users. These parameters include latency (round trip time), jitter (variability of latency) and packet loss (the proportion of data packets that never reach their destination). Additionally, it considers multiple genres of multiplayer mobile games to measure the average sensitivity to network conditions. The games tested include some of the most popular real-time multiplayer mobile games (such as Fortnite, Pro Evolution Soccer and Arena of Valor) played around the world.
Calculating Games Experience starts with measuring the end-to-end experience from users’ devices to internet end-points that host real games. The score is then measured on a scale from 0 to 100.
In addition to Games Experience, we report on the following metrics related to games experience:
- 5G Games Experience: The average Games Experience of Opensignal users when they were connected to an operator’s 5G network.
- Games Experience – 5G Users: The average Games Experience of Opensignal users with a 5G device and a 5G subscription across an operator's networks. It factors in 2G, 3G, 4G and 5G games experience along with the availability of each technology.
- 4G Games Experience: The average Games Experience of Opensignal users on an operator's 4G network.
- 3G Games Experience: The average Games Experience of Opensignal users on an operator's 3G (e.g. UMTS/HSPA or CDMA 1X EV-DO) network.
National Analysis
Thanks to an increase of 1.7 points in TIM’s Voice App Experience score and Claro’s decline of 0.7 points, TIM climbs on the winners’ podium along with the previous outright winner Claro. Both operators win with identical scores of 74.1 points on a 100 point scale. Thanks to its improvement in score, TIM joins Claro in the Acceptable (74-80) category, moving up from Poor (66-74). Vivo comes last, 4.1 points behind the winners — but its score rose by 1.1 points compared to the previous report.
Definitions
Opensignal's Voice App Experience measures the quality of experience for over-the-top (OTT) voice services — mobile voice apps such as WhatsApp, Skype and Facebook Messenger — using a model derived from the International Telecommunication Union (ITU) approach for quantifying overall voice call quality and a series of calibrated technical parameters. This model characterizes the exact relationship between the technical measurements and perceived call quality. Voice App Experience for each operator is calculated on a scale from 0 to 100.
In addition to Voice App Experience, we report on the following metrics related to voice app experience:
- 5G Voice App Experience: The average Voice App Experience of Opensignal users when they were connected to an operator’s 5G network.
- Voice App Experience – 5G Users: The average Voice App Experience of Opensignal users with a 5G device and a 5G subscription across an operator's networks. It factors in 2G, 3G, 4G and 5G voice app experience along with the availability of each technology.
- 4G Voice App Experience: The average Voice App Experience of Opensignal users on an operator's 4G network.
- 3G Voice App Experience: The average Voice App Experience of Opensignal users on an operator's 3G (e.g. UMTS/HSPA or CDMA 1X EV-DO) network.
National Analysis
Claro remains the sole winner of the Download Speed Experience award with a score of 21.5 Mbps — 2.7 Mbps ahead of second-placed Vivo and 3 Mbps ahead of TIM. Claro’s winning margin over Vivo decreased from 5.6 Mbps seen in the previous report. TIM and Vivo both saw boosts of 2.5 (15.5%) and 2.7 Mbps (16.6%) respectively, while Claro’s score declined slightly by 0.2 Mbps.
Definitions
Measured in Mbps, Download Speed Experience represents the typical everyday speeds a user experiences across an operator’s mobile data networks.
In addition to Download Speed Experience, we report on the following metrics related to download speeds:
- 5G Download Speed: The average download speed observed by Opensignal users with active 5G connections.
- Download Speed Experience – 5G Users: The average download speeds experienced by Opensignal users with a 5G device and a 5G subscription across an operator’s networks. It factors in 2G, 3G, 4G, and 5G download speeds along with the availability of each technology.
- 4G Download Speed: The average downlink speed observed by Opensignal users when they were connected to 4G.
- 3G Download Speed: The average downlink speed observed by Opensignal users when they were connected to 3G (e.g. UMTS/HSPA or CDMA 1X EV-DO).
National Analysis
Claro takes home the Upload Speed Experience award again, with a score of 7.7 Mbps. TIM takes second place, 0.2 Mbps behind Claro’s — reducing the gap down from 0.7 Mbps seen in the previous report. Vivo brings up the rear with a score of 7 Mbps, 0.5 Mbps behind the runner-up. Our users on all operators in Brazil enjoyed increases in average upload speeds, ranging from 0.1 Mbps for Claro through 0.3 Mbps for Vivo to 0.6 Mbps for TIM.
Definitions
Upload Speed Experience measures the average upload speeds for each operator observed by our users across their mobile data networks. Typically upload speeds are slower than download speeds, as current mobile broadband technologies focus resources on providing the best possible download speed for users consuming content on their devices. As mobile internet trends move away from downloading content to creating content and supporting real-time communications services, upload speeds are becoming more vital and new technologies are emerging that boost upstream capacity.
In addition to Upload Speed Experience, we report on five supporting metrics related to upload speeds:
- 5G Upload Speed: The average upload speed observed by Opensignal users with active 5G connections.
- Upload Speed Experience – 5G Users: The average upload speeds experienced by Opensignal users with a 5G device and a 5G subscription across an operator’s networks. It factors in 2G, 3G, 4G, and 5G upload speeds along with the availability of each technology.
- 4G Upload Speed: The average uplink speed observed by Opensignal users when they were connected to 4G.
- 3G Upload Speed: The average uplink speed observed by Opensignal users when they were connected to 3G (e.g. UMTS/HSPA or CDMA 1X EV-DO).
Regional Analysis
Claro wins four city awards outright across the overall speed and experiential metrics in two of Brazil’s biggest cities by population — Rio de Janeiro and São Paulo. TIM is the sole winner of three awards, while Vivo takes home one award — and all three operators were statistically tied for the two remaining trophies.
Vivo secures its only outright win for Download Speed Experience in Rio de Janeiro, where it wins with a score of 23.9 Mbps — 1.5 Mbps faster than second-placed TIM. All operators are joint winners for this award in São Paulo, with scores in the 21.2-21.6 Mbps range. However, TIM takes home Upload Speed Experience outright in both cities — our users saw average upload speeds clocking in at 8.3 Mbps in Rio de Janeiro and at 9.2 Mbps in São Paulo. In both cities, TIM beats Claro by 0.4 and 0.5 Mbps, respectively.
TIM completes its haul of outright wins with a sole victory in São Paulo for Video Experience — but in Rio de Janeiro, our users observed no statistically significant differences between all three operators, and as a result, they are all crowned joint winners. Claro collects all of its four outright wins in two experiential categories — Games Experience and Voice App Experience. For Games Experience, it commands a lead of 5.5 points over TIM in Rio de Janeiro — but its winning margin over TIM is much lower in São Paulo, only 1.5 points.
Regional Analysis Summary: Brazil, Mobile Network Experience Report, January 2023
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Coverage
Claro
TIM
Vivo
National Analysis
Our users on TIM’s network connected to 3G or better service 96.1% of the time, which was the best score in Brazil. As a result, TIM wins the Availability award outright, seeing an increase in its score of 0.5 percentage points compared to the previous report. Vivo was the runner-up, one percentage point behind the winner and with no statistically significant change in its score — and as a result, TIM widened its lead from the 0.6 percentage points commanded in the previous report. Claro comes last, but it saw the highest increase in its Availability score, of 1.1 percentage points.
Definitions
Our availability metrics are not a measure of a network’s geographical extent. They won’t tell you whether you are likely to get a signal if you plan to visit a remote rural or nearly uninhabited region. Instead, they measure what proportion of time people have a network connection, in the places they most commonly frequent — something often missed by traditional coverage metrics. Looking at when users have a connection rather than where, provides us with a more precise reflection of the true user experience.
We also keep track of the instances that leave mobile users most frustrated: when there is no signal to connect to at all. The most common dead zones users struggle with occur indoors. As most of our availability data is collected indoors (as that’s where users spend most of their time), we’re particularly astute at detecting areas of zero signal.
Our availability metrics take a user-centric, time-based approach that complements the user-centric and geographical-based methodology used by our reach metrics.
Availability shows the proportion of time all Opensignal users on an operator’s network had either a 3G, 4G or 5G connection.
Map Definition
The coverage maps show the locations where we received measurements from users connecting with 3G or better mobile service. Each map provides an indication of the areas in which it is possible to obtain mobile service from that mobile operator.
Regional Analysis
Our TIM users connected to 3G or better services for the highest amount of time in Rio de Janeiro, for 97.6% of the time — 0.5 percentage points more than Vivo and one percentage point higher than Claro. In São Paulo, Claro and TIM are joint winners, with scores of 96.9-97.1%.
Regional Analysis Summary: Brazil, Mobile Network Experience Report, January 2023
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Consistency
National Analysis
Claro secures the Excellent Consistent Quality award for the second time in a row in Opensignal reports, with a score of 66.1% — 3.6 percentage points ahead of TIM, down from being four percentage points ahead in the previous report. The two operators’ scores dipped by 1.5 and 1.2 percentage points respectively — meanwhile, third-placed Vivo’s score increased by 3.3 percentage points. As a result, Vivo reduced its loss to the second-placed TIM from 8.1 to 3.6 percentage points.
Definitions
Consistent Quality measures how often users’ experience on a network was sufficient to support common applications’ requirements. It measures download speed, upload speed, latency, jitter, packet loss, time to first byte and the percentage of tests attempted which did not succeed due to a connectivity issue on either the download or server response component.
Full details on how the Consistent Quality metrics — Excellent Consistent Quality and Core Consistent Quality — are calculated can be found here.
Excellent Consistent Quality is the percentage of users’ tests that met the minimum recommended performance thresholds to watch HD video, complete group video conference calls and play games.
National Analysis
TIM wins Core Consistent Quality for the second consecutive time in Opensignal reports, this time with a score of 81.9%. Claro follows closely behind, 0.3 percentage points behind the winner — down from 1.6 percentage points seen previously. Both operators observed declines in their results — Claro’s score declined by 0.5 percentage points, while TIM’s — by 1.8 percentage points.
Vivo brings up the rear, but it saw an increase in score of 0.9 percentage points and with its competitors’ decline in scores, only 4.5 percentage points separate all three Brazilian operators — down from 7.2 percentage points.
Definitions
Consistent Quality measures how often users’ experience on a network was sufficient to support common applications’ requirements. It measures download speed, upload speed, latency, jitter, packet loss, time to first byte and the percentage of tests attempted which did not succeed due to a connectivity issue on either the download or server response component.
Full details on how the Consistent Quality metrics — Excellent Consistent Quality and Core Consistent Quality — are calculated can be found here.
Core Consistent Quality is the percentage of users’ tests that met the minimum recommended performance thresholds for lower performance applications including SD video, voice calls and web browsing.
Related Analysis
Our Methodology
Collecting billions of individual measurements daily from over 100 million devices globally, Opensignal independently analyzes mobile and broadband user experience on every major network operator around the globe.
About Opensignal
Opensignal is the leading global provider of independent insights into consumers' connectivity experiences and choice of carrier. Our proprietary insights into mobile and broadband networks give operators the solutions they need to profitably compete and win, from executive level scorecards and public validation to pin-point level engineering analytics and consumer decision dynamics.
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Confidence Intervals
For every metric we calculate statistical confidence intervals indicated on our graphs. When confidence intervals overlap, our measured results are too close to declare a winner. In those cases, we show a statistical draw. For this reason, some metrics have multiple operator winners.
In our bar graphs we represent confidence intervals as boundaries on either sides of graph bars.
In our supporting-metric charts we show confidence intervals as +/- numerical values.
Why confidence intervals are vital in analyzing mobile network experience