3.5GHz band cleared for 5G in further 189 more municipalities

This is a machine translation of a press release by Anatel

As of September 30, 2024, providers that acquired lots in the 3.5 GHz band will be able to request the National Telecommunications Agency (Anatel) to license and activate stations in this band in 189 more municipalities, according to a decision made this Tuesday, September 24, at the Ordinary Meeting of the Monitoring Group for the Implementation of Solutions for Interference Problems in the 3,625 to 3,700 MHz band (Gaispi).

With the decision, there will be 5,191 municipalities with the 3.5 GHz band available for use by standalone 5G stations, where more than 204.6 million Brazilians live, corresponings to approximately 96% of the population.

To facilitate monitoring of released municipalities, Gaispi provides a data panel showing the municipalities in which the 3.5 GHz band has already been released, as well as the planning approved by the Group for the next releases.

It is important to emphasize that the release of the band does not mean that 5G networks will be installed immediately in the locations: the early installation of fifth-generation stations in these cities depends on the individual planning of each provider.

The decision taken by Gaispi, chaired by Anatel, follows the guidelines of the 5G Notice and covers municipalities where the Band Administration Entity (EAF) has already started the migration of the reception of the free open television signal through satellite dishes in the C satellite band to the Ku band, and concluded the necessary actions to vacate this band by Fixed Satellite Service (FSS) systems, having installed filters to mitigate interference in all impacted FSS stations.