Brazil’s Ministry of Communications has finalized a schedule under which analogue TV services will be phased out across the country by November 2018, freeing up extra spectrum for expanding 4G mobile broadband services nationwide, via Ordinance No. 477 of June 20, 2014 (published in the country’s Official Gazette on June 23), Telegeography.com writes.

The ministry is reported to have set regional deadlines for TV broadcasters to turn off analogue services (while in the interim mandating them to offer both analogue and digital services) and surrender the frequencies/channels used for analogue broadcasting (‘the digital dividend’) back to the government upon reaching the cut-off date.

The digital switchover has its pilot deadline in November 2015 in Rio Verde, followed by five major cities in 2016 – Brasilia (April), Sao Paolo (May), Belo Horizonte (June), Goiania (August) and Rio de Janeiro (November). During 2017 a further 15 cities/regions are scheduled to switch off analogue services between June and November that year, and in 2018 – between July and November – another 16 named cities plus all other regions make the switchover according to the ministry’s schedule, with the final analogue shutdown scheduled for November 25, 2018.

The 698MHz-806MHz (700MHz) frequency range currently occupied by TV channels will be thus released and used to expand the 4G mobile services which have so far been rolled out in Brazil using the 2.5GHz band (alongside pilots in other bands such as 450MHz). While the frequencies will become available nationwide during 2015-2018, telecoms regulator Anatel and the Ministry of Communications have penciled in an open auction of 4G 700MHz mobile licenses for August this year, and in an announcement on its website this week, the ministry highlights the 700MHz auction as an opportunity to attract new telecoms investors to the country.