Spotlight: Argentine telcos' 5G woes

Argentine telcos raised concerns about the planned 5G auction, criticizing a lack of vision and deficient spectrum cleaning, among others.

"The regulations now approved recognize the existence of licenses in use that must be migrated, generating uncertainty," according to a press release from association IDA, which represents small and medium enterprises.

“These same circumstances gave rise to conflicts and delays in deployments, as demonstrated by the experience with spectrum tenders carried out previously,” it added. 4G had to be postponed due to interference with services in the Buenos Aires metropolitan area.

Regulator Enacom approved last week the auctioning of 300MHz in the 3.5GHz band, which it claimed was clean, for Q1.

But the president of association Copitec, Miguel Ángel Pesado, told BNamericas recently that “planning should cover all bands likely to be used for 5G,” adding that “a mobile services regulation would be needed that includes the 4G and UHF bands that have not been totally migrated and that continue to be occupied by other services.”

Copitec recommended monitoring the spectrum.

In addition, Pesado said new spectrum regulation should also establish a position on the bands for Wifi 6/6E.

Import and forex problems have also been mentioned as top issues, with IDA highlighting restrictions related to price controls.

IDA advocates efficient infrastructure sharing to strengthen regional 5G providers. So far, this segment is not part of the government’s considerations. But Imowi, a cooperative virtual mobile operator, has shown that services can be provided in remote areas, using small operators’ infrastructure.