A panel held yesterday afternoon during Satellite Map Day 2022 dealt with the challenges in the Brazilian market facing the migration from C to Ku band. Lincoln de Oliveira, General Director of Embratel, anticipated a jump in quality: "We believe we can expand from 70 free-to-air channels to 200. Quality will rise: in band C, signals were transmitted under the analog modality, and in Ku band, they will do it under the digital mode. It will then go to HD quality on most channels."
In line with this, the executive stated that the new parabolic configuration will be "interesting" in terms of quality. With regard to the future of the C band, a reduction like the one observed in the United States is not expected: "There are several applications that will continue in the C band, due to the rains, such as telemetry networks, transmission of energy and video content in stations repeaters”, Oliveira clarified.
An Embratel referent shared the stage with Antonio Parrini, COO of Entidade Administradora da Faixa (EAF). The agency in charge of cleaning up the C band has a "challenging" schedule ahead of it, since all the country's capitals should reach this stage by the end of the first semester. “We started at the beginning of March. In addition, we must change 10 million receivers from low-income people to the Ku band, among other obligations established by the 5G tender”, he commented.