In connection with its expansion plan, Vivo has chosen a less obvious, but no less important, frontier as one of the next steps in expanding its mobile network coverage map in the country.
The operator will sign a cooperation agreement with the government of Paraná on Tuesday, June 16, to expand the state's digital and connectivity infrastructure, in a project that foresees an investment of R$ 192 million from the company.
The investment is part of the Rural Connectivity Program, developed by the Secretariat of Innovation and Artificial Intelligence, the Secretariat of Finance, and Invest Paraná, in addition to 17 other state agencies. It will be focused on regions of Paraná with unlimited or nonexistent access to mobile coverage.
“More than 99% of the urban population in the country is already covered by mobile networks,” says Tiago Machado, director of institutional relations at Vivo, to NeoFeed . For him, one of the challenges is to improve the capacity and modernize these urban networks. But there is another gap to be closed.
“A second challenge is to expand coverage to areas where the population may not be proportionally as large, but which have a lot of economic activity,” he says. “We need to connect agribusiness, cooperatives, large and small farms, industry, and logistics.”
In this direction, the initiative that unites Vivo and the government of Paraná involves a plan to deploy 411 4G and 5G mobile network sites in an area that will encompass 74 cities, from predominantly rural locations to municipalities on the state's coast.
“We are talking about an economically strong region, which includes a good portion of Paraná's harvest. And not only in that field, but also in tourism,” says Marcos Stamm, Secretary of Innovation and Artificial Intelligence of Paraná. “We will gain new momentum with this partnership.”
One of the areas where the project will gain traction is the road network. The plan includes 155 sites that will be implemented along this mode of transport, with particular emphasis on the more than 730 kilometers of the BR-277 highway, which crosses the state and connects Foz do Iguaçu to the Port of Paranaguá.
This route also includes state highways connected to the coast, such as the Estrada da Graciosa and the Estrada Alexandra-Matinhos, as well as access roads to Pontal do Paraná and the municipality of Guaratuba.
Upon completion of this expansion, Vivo will increase connectivity by more than 580 kilometers in this network, which currently has a mobile coverage rate of approximately 52%.
“Often, the financial challenge of bringing connectivity to the countryside is getting there. Providing the coverage is sometimes the proportionally smaller part,” says Machado. “When you bring the infrastructure to the highway, you’re much closer to completing the last mile.”
The initiative will also cover another 256 sites, which will be distributed across structures to improve the quality and capacity of the network in areas already served and in regions with little or no connectivity, as well as reaching new locations.
With the completion of this expansion planned for the end of 2027, approximately 25% of the sites will be dedicated to capacity expansion. The remaining 75% will be entirely new structures in locations that previously lacked coverage.
The BR-277 highway, which connects Foz do Iguaçu to the Port of Paranaguá, will be one of the focuses of the project.
“We are going to grow the number of sites we have in the state by about 16% in a little less than two years,” says Machado. “And as part of a multi-layered project, ranging from capacity in the most densely populated areas to coverage in the most remote regions.”
Voluntary membership
Today, in the mobile segment, Vivo is present in 392 cities in Paraná. The operator's 5G network coverage in the region already reaches approximately 72% of the population. The 4G network reaches approximately 99% of Paraná residents.
“One important point is that Vivo is joining the program voluntarily, since the company had no obligations to Paraná in these regions,” says Stamm. “They joined because of the importance of this context.”
As part of this cooperation, the R$192 million to be invested by the operator will follow a model created by the Paraná state government to enable these investments, which involves the use of ICMS (Value-Added Tax) credits.
This was also the format adopted in the agreements of the other two operators already participating in the program. TIM, for example, committed to investing R$ 22 million in the construction of 116 antennas in 83 municipalities. Claro, on the other hand, signed an agreement for R$ 99.8 million, with 378 antennas in 194 cities.
Developed since 2023, based on georeferenced studies, topography analyses, and cross-referencing of socioeconomic indicators, and implemented in 2024, the Rural Connectivity Program has already yielded practical results for the state of Paraná.
“We went from a mobile coverage rate of 51% in 2024 to the current level of 61%,” says Stamm. “Together, the three operators will install more than 900 towers. It’s an initiative that has been successful and has boosted the state’s economy, which already has the fourth largest GDP in the country.”
Another piece of data reinforcing these advances is a study conducted by the Paraná Institute for Economic and Social Development, which estimates that internet coverage in rural areas has already generated an annual increase of R$ 2.08 billion to the state's Gross Domestic Product (GDP).
Based on this infrastructure, the Paraná state government has developed other digital initiatives. Among them are projects such as the Digital Rural Postal Code, which, among other features, establishes the precise location of rural properties and has already registered approximately 300,000 properties.
On the other hand, with this expansion plan in the state, it already sees a new way to advance its strategy of diversifying revenues by offering a range of digital services on top of its connectivity infrastructure, in areas such as health, retail and financial services.
