Vivo in Brazil

The figures on this page come from Anatel, Brazil’s telecoms regulator, from Telefônica Brasil’s investor reports and from Vivo’s own site, each with its date.

Vivo’s share of Brazil’s mobile lines

Anatel published its competition report for the second quarter of 2026 on 15 July 2026. It gives Vivo 37.9% of the country’s mobile accesses, with 1.02 million net additions in those three months. In the regulator’s words, as Teletime quoted them, Vivo stabilised its loss of market share for the first time in five quarters. Telefônica Brasil’s own count at the end of June 2026 was 105.1 million mobile accesses, 73.2 million of them postpaid.

Who owns Vivo?

Vivo is the commercial brand of Telefônica Brasil S.A., which has used it across the whole country since 2012. The company’s history starts in 1998, when Telefónica bought Telesp, a state-owned company of the Telebrás system, at its privatisation. The shareholder table updated on 3 August 2026 gives the Telefónica group 77.13% of the shares: 39.32% held by Telefónica S.A. and 37.80% by Telefónica Latinoamérica Holding S.L. Other shareholders hold 21.92%.

What Vivo took from Oi

Telefônica Brasil was one of the winners of the 2020 auction for Oi’s mobile assets. When the purchase went through in 2022, Vivo received close to 12 million clients, 43 MHz of spectrum with national coverage and about 2,700 sites. In 2022 the company also passed 100 million total accesses.

4G and 5G on Vivo

TeleSemana reported on 1 May 2013 that Vivo already offered LTE in Brasília, Fortaleza, Recife, Rio de Janeiro, Belo Horizonte and Salvador, as well as São Paulo, on the 2.5 GHz band. Pure 5G arrived in Brasília on 6 July 2022, where TIM, Claro and Vivo were the first operators to offer the signal. By the end of June 2026 Vivo’s 5G reached 978 municipalities, 325 more than twelve months earlier, and 73% of the population.

Vivo’s coverage page, read in October 2026, gives 4G for 97% of the population and 5G in every state capital. Customers on a 4G chip, a 5G chip or an eSIM can all use the 5G network. Where none of its mobile coverage is available, Vivo says its satellite service, Vivo Satélite, can connect the phone instead. The page warns that its map comes from theoretical calculations for open areas and is not a guide to signal inside buildings.

A Vivo line as a visitor

Anatel’s page on prepaid registration asks for a CPF number, a date of birth and a home postal code, and says the line is not activated until registration is finished. In October 2025 Vivo launched the Vivo Tourist Plan, a prepaid eSIM for foreign visitors. Teletime reported that it is bought on Vivo’s website with a passport number and an international credit card. Vivo’s page describes 30 days of use with 25 GB of data, 300 minutes and 100 SMS, and says the eSIM is set up before the trip.

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