On the verge of 5G in capitals, more than 300 cities still do not have 4G

Expecting the implementation of 5G in all capitals by September 29 this year, Brazil still has 391 municipalities that do not even have 4G coverage, that is, 7% of the country’s cities.

The data are from Anatel (National Telecommunications Agency) compiled by the Brazilian Telecommunications Infrastructure Association (Abrintel).

Minas Gerais is the state with the most cities without 4G – 110 in total. Then appear Rio Grande do Sul (61), Santa Catarina (53), Mato Grosso (24), Goiás (22) Paraná (21), São Paulo (15), Tocantins (14), Rio de Janeiro (14), Pernambuco (11), Mato Grosso do Sul (7), Ceará and Amazonas (6 each), Espírito Santo (4), Rio Grande do Norte, Rondônia, Piauí and Paraíba (all with 3 each), Sergipe, Roraima, Pará and Amapá (2), Acre, Alagoas and Bahia (1).

The 5G edict itself stipulates the implementation of 4G in cities and locations that do not yet have this version of the technology. According to Arthur Igreja, a specialist in Technology and Innovation, the determination of the installation is good news, but it shows structural problems in the country.

“This shows the size of the inequalities in access to these technologies that are elementary and basic. This was very clear in the pandemic, especially in relation to teaching. Some children were able to connect with very high quality and very quickly, while others simply had no access at all. I hope these same places will also get 5G technology as soon as possible,” she said.

5G, or the fifth generation of mobile telephony, is the new network data transport technology involving mobile devices. It is the successor to previous generations – 4G, 3G, 2G and 1G.

5G can deliver speeds up to 100 times faster than 4G. Latency, which is the delay in the response time of a device, application or website, which was 60-98 milliseconds on 4G, will be reduced to less than 1 millisecond with the new technology.

There are still 7,430 locations, such as districts and towns, rural areas, which do not have any coverage or that only have 3G coverage, and which will receive 4G, according to the public notice.

In addition, there are 2,349 stretches of highways, which add up to 35,785 km of federal highways without coverage, and which must also receive 4G coverage (measures that reach highway users and surrounding populations).

Luciano Stutz, president of Abrintel and Movimento Antene-se, says that the prediction of the arrival of 4G is perhaps more important than the implementation of 5G at this moment. “It is more important to include people in the 4G connectivity cycle than to wait until 5G arrives after 2025,” he says.

“It’s not just 5G that lives up to the edict. Locations that are far from the centers of municipalities, or do not have coverage, or only have 3G, will have better coverage. This can mean the small farmer selling his product beyond the neighborhood, children with access to unpublished content and improvements in education, for example”, he concludes.

According to Anatel’s public notice, the installation of 4G must serve 10% of the locations not yet covered by December 31, 2023, and 100% of them by December 31, 2028. Regarding the sections, the notice predicts that all highways will receive 4G internet by the last day of the year 2029.

In addition to 4G coverage, there are 530 municipalities that will receive fiber optic circuits (backhaul) to interconnect them in high-speed networks. All of them must receive the technology by December 31, 2026. The public notice stipulates that all cities in the country have 5G by December 2029.

5G predictions

Until now, Brasília was the only capital in the country that actually received 5G. There are, however, another 12 capitals and another 106 municipalities that already have updated legislation and, therefore, are able to fully receive the new technology. In relation to the capitals, this means that less than half have the connectivity laws up to date.

However, Luciano Stutz says that the new deadline for all capitals to have 5G, September 29, is feasible, since the lack of legislation in the municipality is not, in itself, an impediment. “Without updated legislation, it creates a difficulty. But you can install 5G at this mandatory fee stipulated by Anatel, using the existing 4G structure, at least to fulfill the 1st stage for the first installation range”, he ponders.

However, the president of Abrintel points out that for 5G to work to its fullest, it is necessary to have five to ten times more antennas than the existing ones for 4G. Without the updated laws, according to him, this is difficult to happen.

Specialist Arthur Igreja also believes that the capitals will be covered by the deadline with 5G, but highlights concerns about how this new technology will reach other cities.

“We will have very different scenarios. Cities that are better articulated, others not so much. We will have 5G to some extent throughout the year. But at what speed, with what coverage, on what terms? So I expect quite different conditions. It depends on whether the city is attractive to companies, on antenna installation issues, which are resolved at the municipal level. This diagnosis is valid for both capitals and medium-sized cities”, he pointed out.