Anatel (National Telecommunications Agency) announced on Wednesday (14) that 15 more Brazilian cities, including three in Santa Catarina, can activate the fifth generation mobile internet signal, 5G, free of charge for operators.

5G Mobile Telephony – Photo: Marcello Casal JrAgência Brasil/ND

The release is made after cleaning the 3.5 Ghz range from possible interference. This work is being done by Gaispi (Interference Solution Implementation Monitoring Group) affiliated with Anatel. So far, 5G has only been released and activated in capital cities.

The list now includes the liberation of six cities with a population of more than 500 thousand people: Joinville, in the north of Santa Catarina, Ananindeua (Pennsylvania), Jaboatão dos Guararapes (Pennsylvania), Aparecida de Goiania (Goiania), Caxias do Sul ( RS) and Londrina (PR).

San José in Greater Florianopolis and San Francisco do Sul on the north coast of the state were also released. In addition to these, seven other smaller towns in the metropolitan regions: Olinda (PE), Paulista (PE), Diadema (SP), São Cayetano do Sul (SP), Nilopolis (RJ), São João de Meriti (RJ) and Mosque (RJ).

Now the activation of 5G will actually depend on the will of the operators who won the licenses to use the band in an auction organized by Anatel.

This is because the notice sets a date of July 31, 2025 as the deadline for telcos to activate 5G in cities with more than 500,000 inhabitants and July 31, 2026 for cities with more than 200,000 inhabitants. In state capitals, the deadline expired this year, so 5G is already activated in those places.

“The announced cities are already clean. If there is interest from operators, they are already available for activation, but this does not require public notice,” Moises Moreira, President of Gaispi and Advisor to Anatel, explained at a press conference.

The range through which the fifth generation Internet will pass is currently occupied by a television signal via satellite dishes. The cleaning process consists in transferring the signal from the C-band cymbals to the KU-band. Technicians have spent the past few days on the streets, installing filters on equipment and checking to see if the “bypass” in the signal is working properly. Moreira says more than 2,500 filters have been installed today.

The period for which Guyspi clears and releases the traffic lane in all 26 cities of the country with a population of more than 500 thousand people ends on December 31 of this year. So 5G will be able to get more seats in the coming days.

In the case of smaller towns, the release date for the Guyspi strip is longer, but the technical team decided to anticipate this process in some municipalities of the capital regions in order to take advantage of the clean-up work already underway in the region.

And also because operators have expressed interest in expanding 5G coverage in these areas before the mandatory deadline specified in the public notice.