# 5G Mobile Phone Network Introduction in Colombia
## 7 5G Network Mobile Deployment in Colombia
### Current Situation and Future Deployment  
The ANE is the entity in charge of advising the Ministry of Information Technologies and Communications in the design and formulation of policies, plans, and programmes related to the radio spectrum [75]. Reported in August 2020 that the 26 GHz and 38 GHz millimetre bands would be available from 2027 and 2028, respectively, the 3500 MHz band in the third quarter of 2021, while the 700 MHz, 1900 MHz, 2500 MHz, and 3500 MHz bands for the deployment and provision of 5G terrestrial mobile services in Colombia before the end of the current national government (before September 2022) [63; 76]. This information is summarized in Table 6. The 3500 MHz band is the \"fundamental enabler\" for the commercial deployment of 5G because it is the globally cleared (harmonised) band for this purpose [77]. Colombia has 400 MHz released between the ranges 3300 MHz-3700 MHz in the 3.5 GHz [61] with a suggested GSA (Global Mobile Suppliers Association) block of 80 or 100 MH necessary for each operator to maximize efficiency and affordability in the first phase of deployment [77]. This band, belonging to the C-band for 5G (3300 MHz-4200 MHz), will be auctioned in the third quarter of 2021 (Q3-2021). Therefore, Colombia continues to research on 5G before its launch for commercial use, following similar road maps to other countries in the world, as shown in Figure 5.  
It is estimated by 5G operators that, in its commercial introduction, the radio access network in Colombia will take advantage of part of the elements of the 4G network to reduce costs such as by reusing basebands. In the case of Ericsson-branded BBUs, they could be reused if they are no more than 5 years old, leaving most of the capital investment in the radio and spectrum without the need to upgrade the entire network.  
Most of the mobile operators in both Colombia and Latin America, for the initial phase of the 5G network commercial deployment, estimate that it will be almost 100% D-RAN. However, they envision C-RAN for particular cases, such as in industrial areas, in a small percentage of the 5G network. The use of C-RAN in Colombia and Latin America is in its beginnings and is currently more inefficient than D-RAN in terms of energy resource consumption and processing. Tests carried out in Ericsson laboratories reveal that moving distributed BBU functions to COTS X86 (\"Commercial of the Shelf\") type servers, which are currently the resources available on the market in data centres, are not yet 100% optimised to run telecommunications applications. Then, more servers are required and, therefore, greater energy consumption to match the capacity of the BBU are necessary, which needs 1.5 U (rack unit) per site to process several technologies at the same time. Another scenario is to make BBU-Hotels or BBU-Pool, but there are limitations on the distance of the Fronthaul (10 to 15 km) between the RRH (remote radio head), and the BBU [79] to ensure a latency of fewer than 100 microseconds and a minimum channel capacity of 10 Gbps [80,81]. These latency and throughput rates are different from the access network we have today, and we should expect a higher cost per access point. Therefore, it is not a recommended alternative for mass deployments of C-RANs at this time.  
Figure 5: C-Band for 5G (3300 MHz–4200 MHz) and mm-W band for 5G at 26/28 GHz situation in the worldwide map by December 2020 for 5G [78].