An open innovation initiative, with actors from public authorities, academia and the private sector: this is Open 5G @Campinas, a movement created to enhance the use of 5G in Brazil and discuss its applications. The live presentation of the project took place yesterday (6/14), and was attended by representatives of the creators of this initiative, the National Education and Research Network (RNP), the Center for Research and Development in Telecommunications (CPqD), the Brazilian Agricultural Research Corporation (Embrapa), the State University of Campinas (Unicamp), the Pontifical Catholic University (PUC) of Campinas, TIM and the city of Campinas. 

CPqD's Director of Innovation, Paulo Curado, opened the event by talking about the importance of incorporating different sectors in innovation initiatives. “Open 5G @Campinas is a totally open initiative. The entities participating today are the founders, we are totally open to receive other institutions. Within this group, we want to share knowledge and experience among the participants to, in the future, support the public power in technological policies. In Campinas, we have the opportunity to serve as an example to other regions by bringing ecosystem work, bringing together different actors”, he explained. 

Open 5G @Campinas intends to build a wide collaboration network. In addition to the actors already involved, the idea is to include even more sectors, such as startups, research and innovation institutions and companies from other segments. 5G is a disruptive technology that affects different areas of society, therefore, it requires a connected network of people, organizations, equipment and laboratories that can house projects of different natures.  

Unicamp's representative, professor Renato da Rocha Lopes, pointed out the influence of a project of this magnitude for educational institutions. “In Unicamp's view, projects like this are structuring for society. This initiative has a number of advantages, as it uses our problem-oriented research talent, making the university produce knowledge of greater impact. One of the challenges of 5G is knowing what will be done with it, as this new technology opens up an enormous amount of possibilities, and we hope that this will be a very fruitful project”, he said.  

Concluding the event, RNP's Director of Engineering and Operations, Eduardo Grizendi, explained a little about RNP's participation in this project. He mentioned that 5G is strategic for RNP because it is part of a larger objective of ubiquitously connecting researchers and their devices. “RNP already operates an optical infrastructure in Brazil, but we want to expand our solutions to cover the mobile service, in addition to the fixed connectivity already made available by RNP for teaching and research institutions. We already work with the mobile service, but we want a more robust structure, and 5G is a motivation to start our operation. Our community needs 5G for use and also as a platform for innovation”, he said.  

Grizendi credits the success of the initiative to its open nature of innovation and also to its location. He claims that Campinas is a city with the potential to serve as a model for other cities in the country. “RNP was born in Campinas, 32 years ago. The municipality is a technological environment, where there are many companies and institutions like the ones that are participating. The Campinas ecosystem contributes a lot to motivate this initiative. I am sure that Open 5G @Campinas is already successful”, he concluded.