Telecom Argentina sees increased demand for private networks

Telecom Argentina has seen the private network market as a "major attraction" in the last six months, particularly among mining and agricultural companies.

"These are industries that are introducing use cases based on the internet of things [IoT] and they need basic infrastructure to enable them, and what they see is that other technologies ... like Wi-Fi, when taken out to the field are beginning to have certain limitations," Martín Piñeiro, Telecom Argentina's IoT technology manager, told BNamericas during the IoT Day event in Buenos Aires last week.

Piñeiro said that in the last six months, the telco began observing a market need both in the fields of private and public networks, but in a dedicated way for business use cases.

Currently, Telecom Argentina does not have any commercial network deployed, but it is working on five or six proposals, in different degrees of development. "It's a relatively long decision cycle," Piñeiro said. "Today, serious work is being done to identify what effort, in cost and time, is involved in deploying a private network and what repayment is like." 

Piñeiro hopes to be able to "prove a case and be able to share it with the industry in the course of this year." He said he has started talks with customers in the manufacturing field for private 5G networks.

Argentina is negotiating the terms of the future 5G tender. The telco has already deployed the technology in part of its network under a dynamic spectrum sharing (DSS) system.

IoT

Private networks and managed connectivity services are the foundation for enabling IoT solutions and applications.

Telecom Argentina focuses on two main areas in IoT issues: asset tracking and traceability solutions for the logistics industry, industry – digital twins, energy efficiency management and machinery maintenance – and smart cities.

In addition, it recently presented a proposal to improve connectivity in agriculture, with the aim of expanding the offer of solutions for the sector.

In smart cities, the company indicated that it is working with small and medium-sized energy firms on smart meter projects for home, commercial or industrial use. “The expectation is great. The distribution sector in Argentina is just taking its first steps along this transformation path,” Piñeiro said.

Telecom Argentina's customers in the energy area are typically cooperatives that operate in the interior of the country.

In addition, the first cases of intelligent lighting are being implemented.

The telco's IoT solutions use NB-IoT low-power networks. Although the company has NB-IoT deployed in all its antennas, it has the low-power network turned on in 70% of its network. "We turn on the service to the extent that we have demand," said Piñeiro.

The company has between 10 and 15 business partners for IoT services.

The telco manages close to 500,000 IoT connections in Argentina.