Argentina expects to greenlight 5G tender in June

Argentine telecom regulator Enacom expects its board to approve the call for a 5G tender at a meeting in June.

During the Internet Day event, Enacom VP Gustavo López told reporters that the specifications are ready and all that remains is to finalize technical and economic details.

The regulator recently approved the spectrum regulation, one of the essential steps to hold the auction.

"The political will is to do it as soon as possible," López said.

The price of the spectrum was the first stumbling block in the tender. Although the issue is not yet resolved, the regulator holds weekly meetings with the operators.

In addition, the official announced that "a balance is being reached" between the value of the spectrum and investment commitments.

Argentina plans to tender 300MHz of spectrum in the 3.5GHz band for 5G. “We chose the spectrum that was cleanest,” López said when asked by BNamericas.

At the end of last year, the regulator established a two-year period for operators that still have services in those frequencies to migrate. "The migration has already started," said the Enacom official.

López also said "important announcements are coming" from the regulator.

Among them, Enacom hopes to be able to publish the definition of spectrum for Wi-Fi 6. However, it preferred not to provide dates.

This Thursday the regulator's board meets to discuss "pending issues," although it did not specify what the agenda will be.

UNIVERSAL SERVICE FUND

López took advantage of the event to highlight the progress in the allocation of universal service funds for connectivity projects.

The official rebuffed criticism of the use of the universal service fund and said in response to a question from BNamericas that "there is no under-execution, what is delayed are the works." The regulator even had to assign new budgets and re-tender projects because inflation and obstacles to importing products delayed the works.

According to López, Enacom has invested more than 28bn pesos (US$122mn) from the universal service fund for projects. Among the points to highlight, López spoke of the fact that fiber optic and connectivity works have been carried out in more than 1,000 popular neighborhoods. “There are 6mn people who did not have access [to the internet] and now they will be able to have it,” he said.