SÃO PAULO – America Movil’s wireless unit in Brazil, Claro, held a “5G” technology demonstration at Futurecom 2016 with vendor partner Ericsson and using the 15 GHz frequency band. In a video interview with RCR Wireless News, Claro’s engineering director André Sarcinelli explained the bandwidth is used in Brazil for corporate purposes, with the carrier gaining use for the trial from the National Telecommunications Agency.
Sarcinelli noted the trial was important to understand how the technology works and to push forward a discussion about which frequency band Brazil may want to use to deploy 5G services. “Our regulator didn’t manage to jump into frequency band agenda, but Brazil usually takes frequency of U.S. or Europe,” Sarcinelli said. “And Brazil could also use the 3.5 GHz frequency band.”
As for initial 5G technology use cases, Claro is looking at fixed broadband services and low-latency “internet of things” services, with the carrier predicting the technology could be available for commercial use within five years.
In the video interview, Sarcinelli also discussed spectrum refarming as a way to improve quality of current “4G” networks and to expand coverage.
As for vendors, ZTE and Qualcomm both said LTE-based 4G still has a long way to go and bet on 5G deployments starting after 2020. Shawn Qi Xiaohong, CMO at ZTE Brazil, stated 4G will spread rapidly in the country and it should be the first in Latin American to have 5G.
Helio Oyama, Qualcomm’s director for business development, said 5G might hit Brazil two or three years after commercial launches in developed markets, which are expected to begin around 2019.
“There’s a lot room to grow in 4G in Brazil yet. We have, in the region, started carrier aggregation and 4G still have a long way to go,” Oyama said.
