Um Anatel report confirms what we already imagined: the pandemic increased the use of mobile data and working cell phone numbers in Brazil in 2020. In December of last year, Brazil registered around 234,07 million mobile phone accesses — 3,26% more than in 2019, which reached 226,68 million.

O Telecommunications Sector Monitoring Report observed the access numbers in the four main operators in the country, which correspond to almost 97% of the total accesses in national telephony last year. The 3% growth, although not very expressive in percentage points, corresponds to 7,39 million new numbers and is the first positive indicator since 2015, a period in which Brazil had 284,17 million accesses.

The numbers also show that all regions of Brazil had a higher density of telephone numbers per inhabitant last year, reaching an average of 97,20 accesses for every group of 100 inhabitants. Mobile data coverage in Brazil in 2020 in urban areas of the states reached an average of 94% – a high number even when operators were exempt from implementing 4G in 1280 locations.

Estimate is that the pandemic boosted numbers in Brazil

Anatel estimates that the increase in access to mobile data in 2020 is linked to a possible increase in adoption of mobile technology, especially for meetings and school activities. “Cell phones are the cheapest device for accessing the internet, and many of these devices are already sold with the purchase of a new plan,” the document states.

Of the new lines acquired, most of the services involved prepaid numbers, a reason that the agency attributes to the greater ease of financial control. It was only in September 2020 that the number of postpaid plans became higher.

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