By Brazil Stock Guide – Competition for Brazil’s 278 million mobile lines and 57 million fixed-broadband connections ended the first half of 2026 with Claro gaining customers in fiber, postpaid plans and number portability. Vivo expanded its fixed-line base, while TIM, Nio and Desktop lost ground in specific segments, according to an Aug. 3 BTG Pactual report based on data from telecommunications regulator Anatel.
The figures show an expanding market that is distributing gains unevenly among carriers. Fixed broadband grew 4.5% from a year earlier, the mobile market advanced 4% and fiber-to-the-home connections rose 9% to 43 million. Claro’s performance stood out across several of the areas in which operators compete directly for customers.
Claro Uses Fiber to Defend Broadband Lead
Claro, the Brazilian unit of América Móvil (NYSE: AMX), remained Brazil’s largest fixed-broadband provider with a 19% market share.
Its total broadband base rose 4% from a year earlier, slightly below the overall market’s growth rate. The company’s FTTH customer base, however, expanded more than 49%, the strongest increase among the major operators covered in the report.
About 7 million Claro subscribers are still connected through HFC technology, though that base has declined for several consecutive quarters. The numbers indicate that Claro has been migrating existing customers to fiber while also adding new subscribers.
That shift gives the operator a larger presence in a segment that has become central to broadband competition. Fiber accounted for 43 million connections in June, making the ability to migrate users from legacy networks an important factor in the fight for market share.
Vivo Expands From a More Mature Fiber Base
Telefônica Brasil, which operates under the Vivo brand (B3: VIVT3; NYSE: VIV), increased its fixed-broadband customer base by 10% from a year earlier. Its FTTH base grew 11%.
The slower fiber growth compared with Claro reflects Vivo’s more mature fiber footprint and reduced exposure to network migration, BTG Pactual said. Vivo held the largest share of Brazil’s FTTH market at 19%.
The company averaged 61,000 broadband net additions a month in 2026, compared with 58,000 in the same period of 2025. Its growth was more than twice the rate of the broader fixed-broadband market.
Vivo and Claro have also increased fixed-line revenue on an annual basis since 2024. Vivo’s fixed-line revenue rose 6% in the latest period covered by the report, while Claro posted a 4% increase.
Nio Loses Ground as Regional Providers Expand
Nio, identified by the report as Brazil’s third-largest broadband operator, continued to lose subscribers. Its customer base fell 17% from a year earlier, contrasting with the expansion reported by Claro and Vivo.
Regional providers recorded smaller but positive gains. Unifique (B3: FIQE3) and Brisanet (B3: BRST3) each added about 1,500 broadband customers in June.
Unifique accumulated 17,000 net additions in the first half, while Brisanet recorded 27,000. The results show that smaller providers continue to capture customers even as the two national leaders invest in fiber expansion.
Desktop Focuses on Cash Before Claro Deal
Desktop (B3: DESK3) followed a different path after Claro announced an agreement to acquire the company.
Desktop has focused on cash generation and debt reduction ahead of the transaction’s closing, seeking to increase the deal’s equity value. The strategy coincided with a contraction in its customer base.
The company recorded about 700 net disconnections in June, marking its fifth consecutive month of subscriber losses. The proposed acquisition provides Claro with another route to increase its fixed-broadband presence.
Postpaid Market Favors Claro and Vivo
Competition in mobile services was concentrated in the postpaid segment. Excluding machine-to-machine connections, Claro accumulated 2 million net additions in the first half of 2026.
Vivo ranked second with 1.6 million, while TIM SA (B3: TIMS3) added 435,000 subscribers.
The same order prevailed in June. Claro recorded 281,000 postpaid net additions, followed by Vivo with 208,000 and TIM with 43,000.
Claro and Vivo also posted prepaid net additions in some months during the first half, something neither company had achieved since 2024. Among Brazil’s largest carriers, Vivo was the only one that did not record a slowdown in mobile-service revenue growth in the second quarter.
Portability Deepens Pressure on TIM
Number portability provided the clearest measure of customers moving directly between competitors.
Claro recorded a net gain of 515,000 subscribers through portability in 2026, drawing most of them from TIM and Vivo. The result added to Claro’s gains in postpaid services and fiber broadband.
TIM was at the opposite end of the market. The carrier posted 826,000 net disconnections through portability, losing subscribers to both Claro and Vivo.
The gap shows that overall mobile-market expansion did not remove the need to capture customers already served by rivals. Claro combined organic postpaid growth with gains from users switching operators, while TIM’s positive postpaid additions were offset by a substantially weaker portability balance.
NuCel Adds a Digital Challenger
NuCel has emerged as another competitor after Anatel resumed disclosing data for mobile virtual network operators.
The service, owned by Nubank parent Nu Holdings (NYSE: NU), increased its subscriber base from 4,000 in January 2025 to almost 1.1 million in June 2026. That made NuCel Brazil’s largest mobile virtual network operator.
Nubank has been integrating NuCel with its financial products to convert more of its banking customers into mobile subscribers. Nubank Croma, a customer segment positioned between its traditional and Ultravioleta offerings, includes six free months of NuCel’s 10-gigabyte plan.
Claro ended the period with leadership in fixed broadband, the most postpaid net additions and the strongest portability balance. Vivo expanded faster than the overall broadband market, while TIM, Nio and Desktop recorded customer losses in areas where competition was most direct. NuCel’s growth added a digitally distributed operator to a market already contested by national carriers and regional fiber providers.
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