Brazil: 5G begins to work in Brasilia

RIO DE JANEIRO, BRAZIL – Brasilia is the first capital city in Brazil to have the 5G network working in mobile telephony.

According to the counselor and vice-president of the National Telecommunications Agency (Anatel), Moisés Moreira, the signal will be released in Brasilia on Wednesday, July 6.

Participating in the Teletime Inc event in São Paulo on Monday, July 4, Anatel’s technical group in charge of evaluating the vacancy of the 3.5 gigahertz (GHz) band approved the activation of the 5G signal in the federal capital.

According to Moreira, the next capitals to have the technology released will be Belo Horizonte (Minas Gerais), Porto Alegre (Rio Grande do Sul), João Pessoa (Paraíba) and São Paulo (São Paulo).

Moreira chairs Anatel’s group responsible for releasing the 3.5 GHz frequencies through which the 5G signal will travel. This band was occupied by satellite dish companies that operated with Band C technology and were behind with the migration to another frequency, called Ku Band.

Initially, the auction notice for 5G, held in November last year, stated that the technology should serve all capitals by July 31.

However, problems with chip shortages and delays in the production and importation of electronic equipment related to the covid-19 pandemic caused delays in the schedule.

The deadline for 5G operation in all capitals has now been pushed back to September 29.

According to Moreira, the 5G network launch in Brasilia will serve as a test, with Anatel and the operators installing anti-interference filters.

There are also plans to distribute Ku Band decoders to the low-income population that uses old satellite dishes that operate in the C Band.

With information from Agência Brasil