Brazilian government organizes US visit to speed up 5G auction

Brazilian government officials will be meeting their US counterparts and investors as part of a plan intended to speed up the process around Brazil's upcoming 5G auction.

The US visit starts today (7) and will end on Friday (11). The agenda is led by Brazil's Ministry of Communications and includes representatives from the Ministry of Foreign Affairs, the Ministry of Defense, the Special Secretariat for Strategic Affairs, the National Congress, as well as senators Ciro Nogueira and Flávio Bolsonaro, president Jair Bolsonaro's son.

Other participants of the meetings in the US are representatives from the Brazilian Intelligence Agency, as well as ministers and technical staff from the Federal Court of Auditors, which is currently analyzing the notice for the auction for the 5G spectrum, expected to take place in July.

The aim of the visit, according to the Ministry of Communications, is to "learn more about regulatory approaches to private communications networks and their implementation, as well as sharing experiences around cybersecurity". During the meetings in Washington and New York, the ministers will visit the US Department of Defense, as well as the Department of National Intelligence and the Federal Communications Commission.

According to Communications minister Fabio Faria, the meetings in the US are "a great solution" to expedite the 5G auction, since the Federal Court of Auditors will have the opportunity to have their questions in relation to the fifth-generation spectrum answered, especially when it comes to the implementation of the government's private network.

Another goal of the visit is to "promote the dialog with potential investors in the Brazilian telecommunications market", the Ministry noted. The Brazilian government officials have meetings set up with Motorola, Qualcomm, IBM and AT&T, as well as investment funds and banks, as well as consulting firm Eurasia.

The Brazilian government's US visit this week follows a previous tour led by the Ministry of Communications to some of the leading countries in the 5G space. During the visit, which took place in February, government officials visited Sweden, Finland, Japan and China. At the time, the Brazilian delegation visited companies such as Nokia and Ericsson in their home countries, and new meetings with these two companies will take place during the US visit.