Latin America. In recent years all stakeholders in the wireless market recognize that spectrum is one of the most valuable assets. The governments that regulate it, and the mobile operators that use it, are interested in making the most of the exploitations of this spectrum.
The Caribbean and Latin American telecommunications industries (CALA) have followed in the footsteps in the European and North American markets in the deployment of sub-1 GHz band frequencies for mobile services. For example, in the early days of wireless technology, 1G and 2G services primarily used the 850 MHz band in the United States and the 900 MHz band in Europe. Subsequently, several CALA countries began to deploy mobile networks on 850 MHz, while others used 900 MHz. However, today many of them have decided to implement both bands.
"CALA's mobile telecommunications 'players' are often considered followers, influenced by the evolution of North American and European technology; known for "tropicalizing" the best solutions from foreign markets and for adapting them to their own needs. In terms of adopting new technologies, however, CommScope finds the market to be quite dynamic. The region's markets behave like an "Early Majority" group, deploying well-proven solutions, using state-of-the-art network equipment and adopting existing best practices without making the same mistakes. This trend applies not only to the standardization of mobile technology, but also to the spectrum management policies of the government regulator," said César Calderón, PMP Applications Engineer– Filters at CommScope.
On the other hand, while actual overlap of two bands in the region is not possible, regulators have carefully reviewed and determined which part of each band would be used in a market. However, there is no regional consensus on which parts of the bands are granted in each country, nor the requirement of a protective band between the bands in use, a situation that has created a variety of non-standard band distributions, which has unleashed the need to develop different interference mitigation filters (MFI) in each market.
However, despite the success of these first MFI filters, with the increase in demand for the use of spectrum in different countries, it was discovered that their interference problems persisted, even with the use of standard filters. Which, for César Calderón, led to thinking about different strategies: the same MFI solution was no longer enough for everyone in CALA, flexible filter sets were required that were customized for the demands of each market in the region.
"Many operators in the region initially turned to us to order 900 MHz filters with 850 MHz rejection, so in response to the need to adapt to new needs in the market, our engineering team developed a filter solution that suits almost all requirements. In real field cases, with this type of solution, we have observed a reduction in interference of more than 40 dB, in addition to a reduction in call indicators dropped from unacceptable levels to percentages below 1%."
In this way CommScope developed a set of filters that could be adjusted according to the need of each specific market. Adaptable MFIs were successful, not only by being an innovative technology, but by providing customized and tailored solutions for CALA's clients.
"CommScope can now quickly tailor an MFI solution to any specific need. Because of this capability, several OEMs and operators in this region consider us a key partner to support wireless services in several countries," concluded PMP Applications Engineer–Filters at CommScope.
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