Argentina to auction spectrum for mobile services.
A spectrum auction is expected to take place in Argentina in the second half of 2010, both to sell Movistar’s returned spectrum and to offer frequency bands for 3G and 4G services.
According to Argentine law, no mobile operator can have more than 50MHz of radio spectrum. Following the merger of Telefonica TCP and Movicom BellSouth in January 2005, the merged entity, Movistar, ended up accumulating over 90MHz of spectrum. As a condition for allowing the merger, the country’s regulator, SeCom, requested that Movistar relinquish 42.5MHz of spectrum by end-2008.
SeCom approved a timetable, in December 2005, for Movistar to return its excess spectrum:
- by December 2005 – the first 20MHz, excess frequencies in northern and southern Argentina;
- by July 2006 – 10MHz of spectrum in Buenos Aires and greater Buenos Aires;
- by December 2008 – all remaining excess.
The government said it intended to allocate the returned spectrum to one or more new entrants, and for this purpose, an auction was expected to take place in 2009. This has, however, been delayed to the second half of 2010.
The clear favourites for Movistar’s returned spectrum are cooperative associations Fecotel and Fecosur, which require at least 10MHz to launch services. Claro and Nextel have also expressed an interest in bidding.
Together with the returned spectrum, SeCom reportedly plans to offer 90MHz of radio spectrum in the 1710MHz-1755MHz and 2110MHz-2155MHz frequency bands for the provision of 3G and 4G services such as Long Term Evolution (LTE).
See also: Argentina – Mobile Market – Overview, Statistics & Forecasts
Tagged in: Argentina, Mobile Data, Mobile Voice, Regulations & Government Policies
