Brazilian Ministry Sees LTE-450 Becoming a Standard Technology Within Months

Brazil’s Ministry of Communications (Ministerio das Comunicacoes) has released a statement saying that it expects the standardization of the 450MHz band for 4G Long Term Evolution (LTE) technology to take place ‘in the coming months’.  The ministry said that Brazil wants to set out its position as a global reference point for LTE-450 technology, something it claims has ‘no precedents’ within the telecoms industry. To date, Brazil has invested BRL40 million (USD20.2 million) into domestic ICT research group CPqD, through its development fund Funttel, which is coordinating research into LTE.

In June 2012 the national regulator Anatel carried out a tender for 450MHz spectrum in a bid to take mobile broadband coverage to remote parts of the country. Under its deployment schedule, the watchdog has tasked carriers with reaching 30% coverage of rural areas in their license franchise by June 2014, rising to 60% by end-2014, and 100% by 2015. The ministry also notes that the 450MHz band will have the advantage of allowing voice calls to be carried – something that is not currently available on other 4G frequency bands in Brazil, which are data only.