Telefonica Brasil Q3 Earnings Call Highlights

Key Points

• Telefonica Brasil delivered strong Q3 growth: Revenue rose 7.2% to BRL 16 billion, EBITDA increased 10% to BRL 7.1 billion, and net income climbed 30.1% to BRL 2.5 billion, partly supported by asset-sale gains.
• Mobile and fiber subscriptions expanded: Postpaid access additions topped 900,000, while fiber connections grew 10.8% to 8.4 million; Vivo Total reached 4 million accesses, up 27.8% year over year.
• Cash generation and shareholder returns remained substantial: Free cash flow rose 6.1% to BRL 7.3 billion in the first nine months, and the company said it had disbursed BRL 7 billion to investors, with BRL 1 billion still available under its buyback program.

Telefonica Brasil NYSE: VIV, which operates under the Vivo brand, reported higher third-quarter revenue and profit as mobile and fiber subscriptions grew and gains from asset sales contributed to earnings.

Revenue rose 7.2% from a year earlier to BRL 16 billion, while earnings before interest, taxes, depreciation and amortization, or EBITDA, increased 10% to BRL 7.1 billion. The EBITDA margin expanded 1.1 percentage points to 44.5%.

Net income increased 30.1% to BRL 2.5 billion in the quarter. For the first nine months of 2026, net income rose 23.3% to BRL 5.3 billion, and free cash flow climbed 6.1% to BRL 7.3 billion.

Mobile and fiber growth

CEO Christian Gebara said mobile service revenue grew 7.4% in the quarter, including a 9.1% increase in postpaid revenue. Total mobile accesses reached 106.4 million, up 3.4% year over year. Excluding machine-to-machine connections and dongles, the postpaid base reached 53.4 million accesses after more than 900,000 net additions during the quarter.

Fiber-to-the-home connections rose 10.8% to 8.4 million, with 213,000 net additions in the quarter. The network covered 32.4 million homes, and the take-up rate increased by one percentage point to 26%.

Gebara said Vivo Total, the company’s combined mobile and fiber offering, reached 4 million accesses, up 27.8% year over year. Fiber churn stood at 1.4%; he said churn among Vivo Total fiber customers was one percentage point lower than among standalone fiber customers.

Vivo changed how it allocates Vivo Total revenue between mobile and fiber during the quarter, assigning more to mobile to better reflect market pricing. Gebara said the change did not affect total service revenue, which rose 6% year over year, but it did affect the reported split between the two businesses.

Costs, cash flow and shareholder returns

CFO Rodrigo Monari said total costs increased 5%, below revenue growth. Commercial and infrastructure expenses declined 0.9%, while costs of services and goods sold rose 15.6%, reflecting changes in the company’s business mix.

Other revenue included BRL 352 million in gains from copper sales and BRL 14 million from real estate, Monari said. Gebara also pointed to savings from Vivo’s migration from a concession to an authorization regime and said the company expects to capture more benefits over coming quarters.

Capital spending totaled BRL 7.2 billion in the first nine months, or 15.2% of revenue, down from 15.7% a year earlier. Operating cash flow before leases increased 13.5% to BRL 12.7 billion over that period.

At the end of September, Vivo had net cash of BRL 2.4 billion excluding leases. Including leases, net debt was BRL 13.8 billion, equivalent to 0.5 times EBITDA.

Monari said the company had disbursed BRL 7 billion to investors and had another BRL 325 million in interest on capital scheduled for payment in December. An additional BRL 1 billion remained available under its current share buyback program through February 27. He also reaffirmed the company’s 2026 guidance, without detailing the targets on the call.

Pricing, satellite service and acquisitions

Vivo recently introduced a prepaid offer starting at BRL 35 for 30 days, with drugstore discounts and Google cloud storage. Gebara said it was too early to determine the offer’s impact, though he noted increases in prepaid average revenue per user, recharge frequency and recharge amounts.

Asked whether Vivo could continue raising existing customers’ prices in real terms, Gebara said yes, but declined to specify a future increase. He said the company’s strategy is to keep prices for new and existing customers aligned.

Vivo’s satellite service, developed with Starlink, was available to more than 50 million eligible business and consumer customers, Gebara said. About 10 million had already used it. He said Vivo plans to monetize the service after free periods of three months for businesses and 12 months for consumers, but had not announced commercial plans.

On potential acquisitions, Gebara said Vivo was assessing targets and had held preliminary talks with an internet service provider, but had not reached a conclusion on any near-term purchase. He also said the company was preparing for Brazil’s tax reform and expected its bottom-line impact to be neutral, while noting that some rules remained undefined.

About Telefonica Brasil (NYSE:VIV)

Telefônica Brasil S.A. is a Brazilian telecommunications company that provides services under the Vivo brand. It is part of the Spanish Telefónica Group and serves consumers, businesses and public-sector customers across Brazil. Its offerings include mobile voice and data, fixed-line telephone service, broadband internet—including fiber connectivity—and pay television. The company also provides connectivity and digital services for business customers. Telefônica Brasil traces its origins to the 1998 privatization of Brazil's telecommunications sector, when Telefónica acquired Telesp, the former state-controlled telephone operator in São Paulo.

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