By Juan Pedro Tomás

Wireless backhaul provider Ceragon Networks says it has been selected by Brazilian carrier TIM to participate in the joint work being carried out with the Telecom Infra-Project (TIP) and the National Telecommunication Institute (INATEL) to test providers for 5G Open RAN (O-RAN).

The open field trial will take place on the INATEL campus, in Minas Gerais state, and will incorporate software and hardware vendors, operators, university members and members of the TIP working groups. The trials aim to test and validate different combinations of O-RAN components from various suppliers and their performance under conditions similar to that of a commercial network.

For this specific trial, TIM Brazil will deploy Ceragon’s IP-50E millimeter wave solution, which is capable of delivering up to 20 Gbps of capacity.

“The results of this trial will further strengthen the TIM and Ceragon relationship,” said head of Architecture & Innovation Technology at TIM Brazil, Silmar Palmeira. “We are pleased to have partners who share a vision of the future with TIM, giving more visibility and importance to open ecosystem initiatives. We believe that the project brings development initiatives to academia, companies and manufacturers, boosting the software industry.”

President and CEO of Ceragon Networks, Ira Palti said: “Ceragon is excited to be one of the few vendors selected by TIM Brazil to participate in its upcoming Open RAN trials with TIP and INATEL. Ceragon’s IP-50 solutions were designed to offer best-in-class, cloud-native offerings for each of TIM Brazil’s network hauling domains – and surely the trial results will reflect just that. Ceragon is committed to helping TIM Brazil deploy the best, most flexible and cost-effective 5G network that delivers its customers the highest quality of experience.”

In December last year, TIM Brasil had announced that its 5G network, which uses Dynamic Spectrum Sharing (DSS), would be available in twelve Brazilian cities by March 2021.

The technology, which was activated on current 4G frequencies, has been launched in Sao Paulo, Brasilia, Belo Horizonte, Rio de Janeiro and Curitiba during the last month of 2020.

The carrier said at the time that the technology would also be launched in Salvador, Fortaleza, Recife, Belem, Campinas, Santos and Florianopolis in March 2021.

TIM Brasil had previously announced a 5G trial in the cities of Bento Gonçalves, in Rio Grande do Sul; Itajubá, in Minas Gerais; and Três Lagoas, in Mato Grosso do Sul. The company said it would use DSS technology as well as equipment from Nokia, Ericsson and Huawei.

Rival operator Claro, owned by Mexican telecommunications group America Movil, launched 5G services in limited areas in Sao Paulo and Rio de Janeiro in July of 2020.

Claro launched its 5G network using a combination of 700 MHz, 1800 MHz and 2.5 GHz spectrum. The telco is using Dynamic Spectrum Sharing technology from Ericsson to deliver 5G services via the same spectrum used for its LTE-A network. Testing of DSS technology began in October 2019, in partnership with Ericsson, Qualcomm and Motorola.