- No-interference guarantee: the bandwidth availability is higher than 4GHz, which falls outside the zone of the traditional C-band designated for 5G. This ensures that the 5G network won’t interfere with your signal.
- 100% Coverage in Brazil the EUTELSAT 65 West A satellite is one of the few solutions with 100% coverage of the Brazilian territory, including in remote areas where terrestrial connectivity is impossible to implement.
- More significant energy savings: the Planned C-band of the EUTELSAT 65 West A satellite requires less power for transmissions, thus significantly reducing energy consumption.
As 5G technology for broadband cellular networks continues its expansion across the Americas, broadcasters in Brazil are faced with the challenges of keeping their DTT distribution networks, via satellite, working without interference.
5G has been rapidly expanding across the Americas, but that expansion doesn’t come without complications for broadcasters. The new allocation of C-band frequencies around the 3.5 GHz band, to 5G networks, will cause interferences in signal reception on satellite dishes. This affects broadcasters across Brazil who are now facing the daunting task of mitigating the interfered antennas to keep broadcasting. This blog post will explore an alternative option to avoid interference issues: the Planned C-band.
What is the C-band 5G Interference problem?
The Brazilian broadcasting sector hosts more than 500 stations, with almost 10000 DTT towers. Many of these DTT towers will be affected by the widespread introduction of 5G across Brazil, which will utilize the standard C-band (3.6 – 4.2 GHz) currently assigned to satellite transmission. Mitigation filters can often not work, making the broadcaster have to adopt more complex solutions such as changing the location of the antenna or even installing shielding cages.
Brazilian broadcasters will require a more elaborate and cost-effective solution to meet these challenges.
A Faster, Safer, Cheaper Solution: Planned C-band via the EUTELSAT 65 West A Satellite
Since standard C-band will be impacted by 5G, broadcasters should evaluate the transition to Planned C-Band. Planned C-Band uses the 4.5GHz to 4.8GHz frequency band, 800 MHz away from the band being granted to 5G, making it 100% free of interference caused by mobile services. In collaboration with suppliers, Eutelsat has developed low-cost and high-performance LNBFs which respond only within the Planned C-band, thereby ensuring no interference from 5G.
The EUTELSAT 65 West A satellite, launched in 2016, is located at 65 degrees West, considered the best position for transmitting and receiving TV signals across the region. Today, the satellite enables broadcasters to continue to distribute their content, while avoiding 5G interference, since it offers Planned C-band capacity, with a quick, easy, and cost-effective migration process.
Brazilian broadcasting station, TV Integração, a subsidiary of media group Globo, has completed the migration process from terrestrial microwave network to satellite and is now using the EUTELSAT 65 West A satellite to distribute its services. TV Integração has five generators, covering 257 municipalities and over 2 million households. Tulio Moreira dos Santos, Engineering Director of TV Integração explained why they chose Eutelsat’s satellite solution:
“Capillarization of our signal through exclusively terrestrial means was challenging due to cost of implementation, maintenance, as well as restrictions and insecurity inherent to signal replication by MFN network. The use of the Planned C-band via the EUTELSAT 65 West A satellite was a happy confluence of multiple factors for us.”
TV TEM, also a subsidiary of media group Globo, has also chosen to use the Planned C-band on the EUTELSAT 65 West A satellite to distribute its signals. Ewerton Maciel, CTO of TV TEM commented on their migration process:
“We migrated to the Planned C-band offered by the EUTELSAT 65 West A satellite about two years ago. We made all the adaptations of the technical part to receive and transmit the signal using a different frequency – the transition was very smooth, direct, and we didn’t have any surprises whatsoever.”
The Benefits of the Planned C-Band via the EUTELSAT 65 West A Satellite
The EUTELSAT 65 West A satellite delivers unparallel coverage across Brazil and Latin America. The Planned C-band offered by the satellite to Brazilian broadcasters, in addition to regional Ku-band and Ka-band capacity, comes with a wide range of benefits, including:
To discover more about Eutelsat and the services and support available to broadcasters worldwide, visit Eutelsat’s website today.