Colombia mulling 5G spectrum bands

Colombia's national spectrum agency ANE has called for research reports regarding shared use of the 26GHz band.

Interested parties should send proposals by April 26 to david.murillo@ane.gov.co.

The development comes in the same week ANE published a draft document for public consultation on proposed bands for 5G technology.

The agency is considering low, medium and high bands, the latter being the 24.25-86GHz under study.

According to the document, the lower end of the 24.25-25.25GHz band has up to now been used mainly for point to point fixed access.

Colombia's ICT ministry (Mintic) also published this week a spectrum plan to auction the 700MHz and 1,900MHz bands for 4G.

5G

Regarding 5G, the jury is still out as to which of the high bands will be selected.

Several countries including Chile, Argentina and Mexico have been considering the 28GHz band, according to a report presented this week by 5G Americas at the Conecta conference in Mexico.

Mexico, because of the post-NAFTA free trade agreement, will most likely follow the lead of the United States and Canada, which are tending towards the 28GHz band.

Brazil, which has traditionally followed Europe's lead in spectrum band selection, will probably opt for the 26GHz band.

High, or millimetric bands, will largely be used for coverage of dense urban areas, for indoor environments like airports, for backhaul and for IoT.

Europe has identified 3.4-3.8GHz and 26GHz for 5G with some of that spectrum already assigned.

South Korea, which is advanced in its migration towards 5G, is opting for 28GHz, while Japan is considering 27.5-29.5GHz and China is looking at 24.75-27.5GHz and 37-42.5GHz.

One of the issues with the 28GHz band is that it has been assigned in some countries for satellite communications and would need to be shared with 5G.