4G in Brazil sees 400 percent growth in 2014

Some 6.76 million customers contracted 4G LTE services in Brazil, up 416.5 percent in relation to in the prior year, according to official numbers.

This compares to 1.31 million active 4G customers registered during 2013, according to numbers by Brazilian telecommunications agency Anatel released yesterday (30).

In addition, analyst IDC suggests that 4G in Brazil will see an increase of 800 percent with 11 million subscribers this year and this will generate 6 percent growth to the local telecommunications sector.

The Anatel research also suggests that 3G has finally surpassed GSM in Brazil and represents 51.5 percent of all mobile phone users in the country - in January last year, it represented 35.9 percent of all mobile phones in Brazil - while GSM claimed a 40.2 percent slice of the total.

4G commercial offerings were launched in Brazil in May 2013, in cities where the Confederations Cup took place, with the government station that Brazil would stage "the first large-scale 4G test in the world" - despite the fact that buying 4G services seemed hardly worth the cost as operators still struggled to provide 3G services.

According to Anatel's numbers from 2013, by November 2013, the 4G market had seen 32.1 growth with 730.500 phone lines sold. Two years later, the telecoms body states that by December 2013, 1,31 million customers had contracted 4G services.