Peru reaches 'milestone' with 5G NSA authorization

Peru’s transport and communications ministry (MTC) has authorized 5G services under the non-standalone standard (NSA).

The standard involves providing 5G technology over 4G networks, which will be deployed in spectrum blocks in the 1.7GHz, 2.1GHz, 2.5GHz and 3.5GHz bands.

Initial implementation was greenlighted for the provinces of Ica, Trujillo, Arequipa, Cañete, Huarochirí, Callao and Lima, according to a press release.

Claro has 5G already available in parts of Lima’s metropolitan area and will gradually expand coverage to other cities. Entel said 5G is already available in Surquillo and soon in Lima, Chiclayo, Trujillo and Arequipa.

More speed and capacity

Last month, Claro and Entel received approval to offer 5G services under the fixed wireless access (FWA) modality. Transport and communications minister Eduardo González said this first stage would allow testing a technology that promises better speeds at a lower price.

According to the MTC, the operators’ new commercial plans offer speeds 2.5x faster for double the amount of data than fixed 4G services.

5G NSA is expected to allow up to 10x faster mobile internet compared to 4G and practically eliminate latency.

However, it will only reach its full potential with new portions of spectrum.

Regulator Osiptel said in December that mobile internet operated at an average speed of 23.2Mbps compared to 22.1Mbps in January 2020. Peru ranks fourth in South America, after Argentina (28.9Mbps), Brazil (29.3Mbps) and Uruguay (37Mbps).

With 5G, operators will also be able to better handle rising demand, which grew substantially over the last six years. Osiptel also said that each mobile line consumed on average 72 times more data than in 2014.

Spectrum

MTC has launched a public consultation regarding spectrum auctions next year for the 3.5GHz and 26GHz bands. And investment promotion agency ProInversión's project portfolio lists a spectrum tender for this year already.

“This first stage of 5G is an important milestone for Peru, it begins to give us a first sample of the capabilities of this technology. With the spectrum that the MTC will tender shortly, the capacity and speed of the network will increase much more and that will allow us to enjoy all the potential and all the applications that thanks to 5G are being developed in the world,” Claro’s country manager Humberto Chávez said in a press release.

Entel’s country manager, Ramiro Lafarga, said in a statement that “the potential that 5G has in the democratization of telecommunications and in the development of the country is unprecedented. With fields of application to promote education, health and work, and to more efficiently develop economic sectors with massive impact such as agriculture and livestock.”

Movistar fiber

Although Movistar is the main fixed broadband operator in Peru it does not have spectrum in the 3.5GHz band, so its 5G launch will be limited to mobile services. Hence, Movistar is pushing fiber services as a potential complement to mobile 5G NSA.

“To improve the internet experience at home, at Movistar our main commitment is to reinforce the deployment of fiber optics to the home. This is a technology that allows a large number of devices to be connected at the same time and offers the same quality, that is, the same file upload and download speed,” the vice president of the company’s residential segment, José Antonio Cassinelli, said in a statement.

The company already serves 1.1.mn homes with fiber optics, expected to grow to 1.6mn by the end of the year.