The Brazilian government is looking to Israel for joint investments in the areas of 5G, internet of things (IoT) and network security.
Brazil’s communications minister Fábio Faria is leading a “technical visit” this week to the Middle Eastern country with the chief goal, according to the ministry, of learning about Israeli best practices in these fields.
The Brazilian ambassador to Israel, Gerson Menandro Garcia de Freitas, and the head of government-linked agency for industrial development ABDI, Igor Calvet, are also part of the delegation.
Brazil and Israel agreed to expand cooperation between the two countries, in addition to promoting joint investment in telecommunications infrastructure, particularly related to 5G, the ministry said in a statement, without providing details.
“They [Israeli] are a world reference [in innovation] and we want to be the innovation hub in Latin America, a great innovation hub”, Faria said.
Recently, Qualcomm, Nokia and Israeli company Juganu announced a project to establish a 5G network standard for smart cities deployments in Brazil. The Brazilian delegation has on its agenda a visit to Juganu’s headquarters.
As reported at the time, the collaboration aims to standardize 5G spectrum for smart cities and use cases in public IoT services in Brazil, with the support of ABDI and telecom regulator Anatel.
According to the communications ministry, the project consists of the implementation of 5G antennas integrated into the public lighting network.
In its first phase, Paraná state capital Curitiba and four municipalities will be covered by the technology: Jaraguá do Sul (Santa Catarina), Petrolina (Pernambuco), Ceará-Mirim (Rio Grande do Norte) and Araguaína (Tocantins).
AUCTION
Israel concluded its 5G spectrum auction in August 2020, tendering frequencies in the 700MHz, 2.6GHz and 3.5GHz bands, more than a year before Brazil, which auctioned the same bands, in addition to the 26GHz one, last November.
5G deployment in Israel is relatively advanced, whereas in Brazil the first networks in the 3.5GHz bands must be activated by July this year, according to the terms of the auction.
Israel is mulling another tender to allocate further 5G frequencies, this time in the millimeter wave bands (such as 24GHz, 26GHz or 28GHz), according to Reuters.
The country also has a program to fund startups developing 5G solutions and launched a public call in December to collect inputs for private network deployments.
The Israeli communications ministry said the country aims for “leadership in the field of private networks in areas such as agriculture, education, medicine, and industry.”