Anatel postpones activation of pure 5G in 60 days due to lack of equipment

The board of Anatel (National Telecommunications Agency) approved this Thursday (2) the postponement by 60 days of the release of the 3.5 GHz band of 5G in state capitals. Frequency is considered “pure blood”, offering the highest connection speeds.

The deadline for activating this track was June 30th. Operators, in turn, had to fulfill their first obligations by July 31 — among them, the activation of antennas at the rate of 1 for every 100,000 inhabitants in the 26 capitals and the Federal District.

With the additional term, these dates become August 29 and September 29 of this year, and may be brought forward as assessed by the EAF (Strip Management Entity).

The reason for the delay was the impossibility of delivering equipment by the industry. According to the EAF, the lockdown in China, the shortage of semiconductors and the bottlenecks in the trade chains affected the implementation of the project.

China is the main supplier of equipment for the 5G network and Huawei is its largest manufacturer. It maintains contracts with the largest operators in Brazil for the supply of inputs. Today, the band between 3,300 MHz and 3,700 MHz undergoes cleaning to avoid interference with broadcast TV signals.

The group that monitors the implementation of the new service forwarded the request for postponement to Anatel’s board of directors in May. The possibility of postponement was already provided for in the auction notice, held in 2021.