RIO DE JANEIRO, BRAZIL – A faster and more affordable mobile internet connection, with use in several areas, such as transportation and telemedicine. This is what 5G technology promises, a reality in many countries and that is arriving in Brazil.
Read: 5G technology will be available in all Brazilian state capitals by July 2022
In telecommunications, 5G is the fifth-generation technology standard for mobile and broadband networks that cell phone companies began deploying in late 2018. 5G is the planned successor to 4G networks, which provide connectivity for most devices today.
The company that will be in charge of deploying the technology in the country will be determined by a public bid auction.
About 5G and its innovations, the Minister of Communications, Fábio Faria, gave an interview to our team.
Is there already a deadline for the 5G auction?
Yes. The auction is already out of Anatel [National Telecommunications Agency]. It is now going to TCU [Federal Audit Court], which will have around 60 days to make the final observations. It returns to Anatel and in 40 days we will have the auction. We are talking about 100, 120 days. In June, July at the most, we will be holding the 5G auction in Brazil.
When will Brazilians start having access to this 5G technology?
We put in one of the obligations in the bid for 5G in Brazil in all capitals, the 5G standalone, which is the 5G plus, of higher quality, by June of next year. In June 2022 we will have, in the 27 capitals of Brazil, the pure 5G working, and before that the hybrid solution, which is the 5G standalone, which is a 5G that increases the speed. There is another one that, besides speed, with very low latency that will be possible to use with the Internet of Things, is the communication of thing to thing.
What are the main differences of this 5G technology? What are the benefits for the country?
In 4G, we have Facetime, audio messages, you can communicate with anyone anywhere in the world instantly. 4G came for the people. And 5G is not. It came to change the life of businesses. It is going to be a revolution in industry. We will have companies having a high productivity gain. The whole production chain of the companies will communicate. For example, we will have telemedicine at a distance. Here in Brasilia, a doctor can perform a surgery in a room. If there is an operating room in the middle of the Amazon, for example, he can perform the operation from here. Because with 5G working, standalone has a very low latency (time delay).
Why don’t we do it today?
Because today with an error of a millimeter one way or the other, we can lose a life. So 5G standalone, the latency is very low, so it has no time interval error. It has very high accuracy. We will have driverless cars, which are the autonomous vehicles, remote surgeries, increased rural connectivity, agribusiness companies will grow a lot. And several other companies will have the opportunity to evolve. I say that 5G is coming for companies and industries.
To operate 5G in Brazil, the winning companies have to fulfill some obligations defined by the Ministry of Communications to democratize the internet even more. What are these obligations?
At the beginning of the health crisis, we reached an increase of almost 50% of people using the internet. We were able to offer the service. President Bolsonaro issued a decree making telecommunications an essential service, which was important for the companies to be able to do all the services in the states. And with this we also observed that people started to do home office, distance learning, talking to relatives at a distance, visiting and missing people who live far away. We observed that there are 45 million Brazilians, 20% of Brazil, who do not have internet, who have no access at all.
So, we put in the obligations first that we can bring internet to all the localities above 600 inhabitants. There are 16,000 locations. All of them will have 4G internet by 2028. We will do Norte Conectado, because Brazil’s North region has the least internet access. The Norte Conectado alone will serve 10 million people, almost 25% of the gap that we have in Brazil. 48 thousand kilometers of federal highways, a private government network, in addition to the 5G standalone that will arrive to change the life of companies.
Minister, last month you led a Brazilian mission to countries in Europe and Asia precisely to get to know 5G manufacturers up close. What were the results?
It was very important. First because we took the TCU (federal audit board). The TCU set up a working group. We had the condition that the TCU could clarify some doubts in loco at the companies, because it has, by law, up to 150 days to issue its opinion. With the trip, they said they would reduce it to 90 days. Brazil won three months as a gift to anticipate 5G. And we visited the companies, to know what the difference is with 5G standalone.
How does a connected company work?
We can observe, at Nokia, in Finland, the unimaginable for me: 6G working! I had the opportunity to observe this change further on. We will not even talk about 6G to avoid confusion. But it was important to see what we want in Brazil. There is a company that has more expertise in private networks, another with more expertise in rural connectivity in the countryside. So today we have a diagnosis.
But, to be very clear, the companies do not participate in the auction. The telcoms are the ones who participate: Claro, Vivo and Tim, because Oi mobile was sold to these three operators. After they win the auction they will acquire the equipment.
Source: Brazil Government