SAO PAULO (Reuters) – Telefônica Brasil expects to achieve a recovery in average revenue per customer on its fiber optic services in the coming months, despite the backdrop of high inflation and low economic growth, betting on an increase in sales of higher speeds while it works. in expanding its network to new cities in the country.
The company, which owns the Vivo brand, announced the night before that it ended the fourth quarter with a drop of around 5% in the indicator of average revenue per user (ARPU) of fiber optic services compared to the same period in 2020, the 87.3 reais per month.
“We opened (operations in) many new cities and made some promotions, mainly in the 200 megs (megabit/s) and these promotions are more aggressive and end up having an impact on ARPU”, said the CEO of Telefônica Brasil, Christian Gebara, in an interview with journalists on Wednesday.
The company launched fiber services in 61 cities last year, expanding its customer base by 1.2 million, a growth of 36.4%. As a result, the potential market that the company can reach with its network reached 19.6 million households in 327 cities. The goal is to reach 29 million by 2024.
“For sure there may be a price increase this year, which has not yet been done due to the 12-month cycle and the inflationary scenario. We are trying to look for other ways to increase ARPU”, added the executive.
He referred to the increase in the share of higher speed products in total revenues. According to the executive, Telefônica Brasil “importantly increased the sale of 300 and 600 mega and this should help in the recovery of ARPU” along with the sale of bundled services such as Netflix and Amazon Prime.
On another front, Gebara said that the company’s biggest bet this year will be the joint offer of mobile and fiber telephony services, recently launched by the company, along with digital services that include a partnership in distance learning with the education group Ânima.
“Of course, there is concern about inflation and the inflationary situation that will have an impact on our costs and will have an impact on our prices, but the expectation is that with the complete offer (the company) it can stand out in this environment”, said the president of Telefónica. Brazil.
HI E 5G
Asked about the purchase of mobile assets from Oi, Gebara said that the transaction follows the schedule after being approved in a split decision by the Administrative Council for Economic Defense (Cade) at the beginning of the month.
“We are following all the procedures. There is no interruption of the process”, said the executive, adding that he expects the conclusion of the operation in this first semester.
He stated, however, that Telefônica Brasil still does not have a defined value on the radio base stations that it will have to sell from Oi, one of the measures approved by Cade to release the transaction. “We don’t know the type of equipment and their quality. We don’t have an average value.”
Gebara said that under the agreement with regulatory authorities, Telefônica Brasil will pay Oi for 12 months while the company is operating mobile services to customers and that after that, users who do not choose to port their numbers to other operators will be transferred to company base.
The executive did not comment on the amount of investment planned for this year, mentioning only an annual average of 8.5 billion reais invested in recent years. According to him, within this account this year will be the focus on the deployment of 5G services in the country, which the company intends to activate in the capitals on July 31.
Initially, the goal involves the installation of a 5G base station for every 100,000 inhabitants, said Gebara, clarifying that the company is not required to have coverage for the entire population of the capitals on July 31, but for part of them initially. .
However, the 3.5 GHz frequency, considered the main one for the 5G offer in the country and linked to the obligation to offer in the capitals, has not yet been released by the National Telecommunications Agency (Anatel), being occupied by satellite services.
The agency has until the end of June to carry out this release so that operators can activate 3.5 GHz services at the end of July, said the executive. “Hopefully they will release by then,” Gebara said.
Currently, the company is already providing 5G connection in some regions through the 2.3 GHz frequency, said the executive. “We’ve already noticed a higher consumption (of data) from customers,” he said.
(By Alberto Alerigi Jr.; edited by André Romani)
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