By Claus Hetting, Wi-Fi NOW CEO & Chairman
President of Brazilian regulator Anatel this week ‘buried’ speculation that 6 GHz spectrum allocation to Wi-Fi could be reconsidered. Meanwhile standard power 6 GHz Wi-Fi gains a new platform in Brazil with ISP association ABRINT announcing their intention to become an AFC operator with support from DSA, Cisco, and Broadcom. Meet all the luminaries of the Brazilian Wi-Fi market at WWC Americas in Rio on March 27-29.
Two major announcements regarding 6 GHz Wi-Fi for Brazil hit the wires this week with – first of all – Brazilian regulator Anatel once and for all quashing speculation that Anatel’s initial full-band 6 GHz decision in favour of Wi-Fi (from early last year) would be reconsidered.
According to Brazil’s leading telco & IT publication Convergencia Digital regulator Anatel has ‘buried’ any rumours of changing their position on 6 GHz. President of Anatel Carlos Baigorri – who spoke from the Mobile World Congress 2023 – was adamant. “The subject is closed. 6GHz will maintain 1,200 MHz of capacity for non-traditional operators,” said Carlos Baigorri yesterday.
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Meanwhile Brazilian ISP Association ABRINT – a partner of the Wi-Fi World Congress Rio de Janeiro 2023 scheduled for March 27-29 – has announced its intention to become an AFC operator in order to enable standard power Wi-Fi operation in the 6 GHz band in Brazil. AFC is an AP location & database lookup scheme (SaaS) first mandated by the FCC and designed to permit the coexistence of standard power Wi-Fi with incumbent users of the 6 GHz band.
The initiative is supported by Dynamic Spectrum Alliance, Cisco, and Broadcom. The AFC solution chosen by ABRINT is the ‘OpenAFC’ – an open-source implementation of AFC managed by Telecom Infra Project with contributions from Cisco, Broadcom, and others.
AFC – or Automatic Frequency Coordination – is a spectrum management solution invented by the Wi-Fi industry in cooperation with the FCC. AFC is mandated for use with standard power Wi-Fi indoor and outdoor – in parts of the 6 GHz spectrum – in order to protect incumbent users of the band from harmful interference. Standard power Wi-Fi 6E and Wi-Fi 7 will deliver a boost to both Wi-Fi coverage and capacity for example within the home and enterprise and has been tested for fixed wireless access (FWA) among others by Cambium Networks and Nextlink in the US last year – read more here.
The Wi-Fi World Congress Americas 2023 takes place in Rio on March 27-29 – for more click here.
/Claus.
