Washington D.C., USA, 04 March 2021: ANATEL’s decision to open the complete 5925-7124 MHz band (6 GHz band) for unlicensed access, marks a significant milestone towards unlocking $163.5 billion to the Brazil economy, says Martha Suarez, Dynamic Spectrum Alliance (DSA) President. This decision places Brazil in a leadership position worldwide, as a hub for development of new technologies, enabling innovation, new use cases and considerable benefits for Brazilians and the national economy.
“The allocation of the full 6 GHz band is critical so that technologies using unlicensed spectrum, such as Wi-Fi 6E, may launch, develop, and thrive in Brazil. Likewise, ANATEL’s decision paves the way for the future implementation of Wi-Fi 7 and NR-U technologies in Brazil, making the country a leader in cutting-edge connectivity solutions,” says Martha Suarez, DSA President.
The DSA celebrates this decision and believes that unlicensed access to the 6 GHz band will benefit Brazilian businesses and consumers by providing sufficient Wi-Fi capacity for data intensive video applications, 4G and 5G (data) offloading, and for allowing users to take full advantage of the new applications enabled by the large channel sizes available with the new Wi-Fi-6E generation of equipment.
Different sectors of the Brazilian economy will benefit from the positive impacts of ANATEL’s decision. The allocation of 1200 MHz in the 6 GHz band will contribute US $ 112.14 billion to GDP; US $ 30.03 billion in producer surplus for Brazilian companies; and US $ 21.19 billion in consumer surplus for the Brazilian population between now and 2030, according to the latest study published by the DSA and Telecom Advisory Services. This will come into effect when equipment, solutions and services based on WiFi 6E technology may be available in the national market.
Suarez added, “Unlicensed spectrum use of the 6 GHz band will make possible the spread of broadband connectivity and democratization of internet access in Brazil, especially by small-sized ISPs, aligned to the public policies established for the sector. More unlicensed spectrum allocation should be considered for the 6 GHz band to be used to its full potential so support Wi-Fi networks and wireless devices for both residential and corporate use.”
More countries in the Americas region are expected to make regulatory decisions on 6 GHz later in the year such as Colombia, Mexico, Honduras, Costa Rica, Canada, Peru and Argentina.