Brazil’s 3.5 GHz and the 26 GHz spectrum auction was delayed due to COVID-19
Ericsson and Claro Brasil are laying claim to the first 5G network in Latin America with the deployment of next-gen services being rolled out across 12 areas in Brazil ,in São Paulo and Rio de Janeiro. Ericsson Spectrum Sharing will be part of the deployment and, according to the vendor, this will give Claro data speeds of up to 400 Mbps.
With the vendor’s Dynamic Spectrum Sharing solution, the press release states, gives Claro a 5G “head start” as the operator continues to wait for the 3.5GHz and the 26GHz bands following the auction delay announced in March.
“Ericsson Spectrum Sharing allows us to offer the first 5G network in Latin America,” José Félix, president of Claro, commented. “Claro has state-of-the-art infrastructure, which already offers the fastest 4.5G in the country, and now we take the lead by offering migration to 5G, even before the new frequencies dedicated to this new technology have been granted in Brazil.”
In addition to the 3.5 GHz and the 26 GHz bands, Brazil’s National Telecommunications Agency is expected to award frequencies in the 700 MHz and 2.3 GHz bands during the 5G auction planned for 2021.
Ericsson has already delivered more than 400,000 million 5G-ready radios to Brazil, any of which are candidates for activation of the Ericsson Spectrum Sharing solution via a software update.
Arun Bansal, president of Europe and Latin America, Ericsson said that 5G will has “far-reaching potential” to transform Brazil, “from agriculture to smart cities.”
Made commercially available in February of 2020, Ericsson Spectrum Sharing was the product of significant collaboration between Ericsson and a number of ecosystyem partners, including Qualcomm and Sony. The solution is live on several operators’ networks around the world.
