Both countries will also seek to promote Open RAN in other countries across Latin America
Brazil’s telecommunications regulator Anatel and the Ministry of Internal Affairs and Communications of Japan (MIC) signed a cooperation agreement with the main aim of expanding Open RAN deployments and related technologies.
The regulator said that the cooperation deal also seeks to explore business opportunities between the two countries.
“From Japan’s perspective, Brazil has been a great partner in digital expansion for many years. By building a cooperation relationship with us, Brazil places Open RAN as a major priority area, which becomes a great opportunity to continue the cooperation relationships”, said Japan’s general director for international affairs, Nomura Eigo.
“Open networks are increasingly attracting the attention of the government of Japan, which has been promoting policies to facilitate implementation by operators,” Eigo added.
Anatel’s president Carlos Baigorri noted that Open RAN represents an opportunity for the Brazilian industry, adding that the disaggregation of network components and supplier diversity will open the market to more competitors.
Anatel stated that the agreement with the Japanese government includes:
-Exchange of information on new technologies related to the expansion of Open RAN in Japan and Brazil;
-Cooperation between Japan and Brazil for the promotion of Open RAN in Latin American countries;
-Exchange of information and experiences on public policies for the promotion of secure and open mobile networks, including Open RAN, such as test, spectrum policies and joint public-private initiatives.
In May, Brazil’s Ministry of Science, Technology and Innovation and local state-run research and industrial innovation company Embrapii announced the investment of nearly $36 million in three institutions selected to form centers for competence in the development of research in 5G and 6G, immersive technologies applied to virtual environments and Open RAN.
The Brazilian government said that the three selected organizations are the Telecommunications Research and Development Center (CPQD), the National Telecommunications Institute (Inatel) and the Center of Excellence in Artificial Intelligence at the Federal University of Goiás (CEIA-UFG).
Each of the three competence centers will receive an investment from the PPI IoT/Manufacturing 4.0 Priority Program, which will be applied over a period of 42 months in actions that combine expansion and strengthening of scientific and technological competence in research, development and innovation; training and qualification of human resources and attraction and creation of startups.
The Center for Research and Development in Telecommunications (CPQD) will work on the theme of Open RAN, which focuses on the development of open technologies for telecommunications network infrastructure.
Meanwhile, the National Telecommunications Institute (Inatel) will be the center of competence in the areas of 5G and 6G. Inatel will work on the continuity of the development of 5G research and, in parallel, on the development of norms and standards for future 6G systems.
