Brazil’s broadband boom: lessons for the Global South

The secret sauce behind Brazil’s broadband boom

Brazil’s fibre-first strategy, adopted in the mid-2010s, has proven transformative. By leapfrogging legacy copper infrastructure, the country now boasts of some of the fastest broadband speeds in the Americas. A progressive regulatory environment played a pivotal role in allowing smaller ISPs to acquire fibre assets when incumbents resisted lowering wholesale prices. This opened the floodgates to competition and accelerated deployment.

Today, fibre accounts for the majority of fixed broadband connections, and over 8,000 ISPs operate across the country. This explosion of providers has dramatically expanded access, especially in underserved regions, and driven performance gains. According to Ookla, Brazil’s broadband speeds now rival those in North America.

Even satellite broadband is gaining traction in unexpected ways. Starlink, now among Brazil’s top 10 providers with over 300,000 users, is serving not just rural areas but urban pockets where fibre hasn’t reached. As one executive noted, “Starlink’s growth reveals the latent demand in big cities like São Paulo and Rio.” It’s a sign of how far Brazil’s broadband ecosystem has come and how much hidden opportunity still exists.

Why monetising fibre remains Brazil’s biggest hurdle

Brazil’s fibre rollout has been a technical triumph. Yet, turning that infrastructure into sustainable revenue remains a major challenge. Despite widespread deployment and competitive speeds, operators continue to grapple with low average revenue per user (ARPU), high taxation, and limited pricing power.

The market’s fragmentation, while instrumental in expanding access, has made scale and coordination difficult. Many smaller ISPs lack the financial and operational capacity to move beyond basic connectivity and offer higher-value services. As one executive noted, “We’ve built the roads, but we’re still figuring out how to charge tolls.”

A new concern is emerging: the artificial intelligence (AI) divide. As demand grows for AI-enabled services, from smart cities to industrial automation, broadband infrastructure must evolve to support high-throughput, low-latency workloads. Fibre is a prerequisite, but not all providers are equipped to deliver the performance, reliability, and integration required for AI applications.

If this gap isn’t addressed, it won’t just sideline smaller ISPs, it will limit Brazil’s ability to compete in the digital economy. Regions without AI-ready infrastructure risk falling behind in productivity, innovation, and inclusion. The fibre boom has laid the foundation, but without strategic investment and coordination, Brazil may miss the opportunity to turn connectivity into long-term societal value.

WBBA’s role in Latam

The roundtable underscored a growing need for strategic guidance in broadband investment across Latin America. With infrastructure expanding rapidly but monetisation lagging, stakeholders are calling for clearer frameworks to align capital, policy, and deployment priorities. A coordinated approach is essential, not just to accelerate rollout, but to ensure that investments translate into long-term economic and societal value.

This is where global associations like the World Broadband Association (WBBA) play a critical role. The WBBA serves as a global-local bridge, connecting policymakers, operators, and investors across regions to share lessons, coordinating strategies, and accelerating deployment.

As one participant put it, “We need better coordination between broadband, energy, AI and data centre policies. Right now, they’re not talking to each other.”

At its core, the WBBA exists to champion broadband for all, not just as a connectivity goal, but as a foundation for economic inclusion, digital innovation, and societal resilience. Brazil’s story is a powerful reminder that progress is possible but only if we work together.

Edwin Lin is principal consultant at Omdia, part of Informa TechTarget