The government takes steps to prepare for the landing of fifth generation (5G) mobile phone technology. Published this Wednesday in the Official Gazette regulation and the frequency spectrum for the use of the new technology, as a preparatory step for the tender for the 5G auction.
The Board of Directors of the National Communications Authority (ENaCom), chaired by Massista Claudio Ambrosini, approved the Regulation for Reliable and Intelligent Telecommunications Services (STeFI), which sets the conditions for the implementation of 5G in Argentina.
The STeFI Regulation stipulates that providers will be able to “freely choose the technology and network architecture” who deem it more appropriate to provide the services in the new 5G technology, which will certainly be created by Personal, Claro and Movistar, plus some possible new entrants.
But the leaders of the opposition in ENaCom, Silvana Giudici and José Corral, did not support the approval of this regulation, as they felt the government should repeal DNU 690 – it put mobile telephony as a public service and fixed its price – so that providers can invest billions of dollars in new networks for 5G services.
In any case, Giudici and Corral supported another ENaCom Resolution which assigns the frequencies from 3300 to 3600 Megahertz (Mhz), called 3.5 Gigahertz, for the implementation of the new 5G services, with local, regional or national coverage, which will be determined in the frequency awarding process.
But still the deadlines and the auction model are not cleardue to the obstacle that means DNU 690 and whether the government will prioritize the collection or coverage of 5G service.
This was stated by Moisés Queiroz Moreira, vice president of the Brazilian National Telecommunications Agency (Anatel). clarion that “in the 5G auction, which we held in November 2021, We didn’t have a funding effort, we prioritized investments and hedging commitments. This has given very positive results, providing huge 5G connectivity, as the traffic generated needs infrastructure.”
The regulation published this Wednesday in the Official Gazette is “a decisive step for the arrival of 5G in Argentina”, as announced by ENaCom.
This was reported by Movistar sources clarion who are “analyzing the scope” of the new regulation. And Telecom (a company 40% owned by CVH, a company owned by the shareholders of Grupo Clarín) said they did not “make any statements about it”.
Is that there are doubts in the sector about this auction process, since several suppliers have obtained precautionary measures to suspend the validity of the Necessity and Urgency Decree (DNU) that Alberto Fernández issued in August 2020, which imposed conditions that restrict competition in telecommunications services.
The DNU has established discretionary control of prices and services pay TV, telephony and the internet, changing the legal and economic structure of companies that provide telecommunications services.
As an industry that operates in competition, the DNU has affected their income and promised to provide such servicesespecially since there are other alternative instruments to guarantee them, such as the Trust Fund for Universal Service.
This has discouraged investment in the sector. and has generated growing regulatory and tax imbalances with foreign video distribution platforms, such as Netflix, YouTube, Amazon Prime, Disney+, HBO Max and Star+.
The technical specifications of the Regulation
The main features of 5G they rely on the availability of more bandwidth, the extreme reliability of the network with response speed 100 times higher than 4G, and the possibility of exponentially increasing the number of connected devices, including connectivity between machines.
The new regulation of the 5G service states that it will be “fixed and mobile wireless”. And which will be governed by the rules in force in the Argentine digital law, together with the announcement that will be dictated by ENaCom.
The 5G service will support “advanced mobile broadband applications, high-reliability and low-latency communications, and machine-type mass communications, among others,” according to the new regulation.
These will be lab reproducible speeds for 100 MHz channels 2 Gigabits per second (Gbps) download and 150 Megabits per second (Mbps) uploadwith a latency of less than 15 milliseconds in the access network, according to the Regulation approved by ENaCom.
There it is stipulated that 5G service will also have the ability to do this interoperability with other networksif it is to “support users moving at speeds of up to 500 kilometers per hour”.
“Reliable and intelligent telecommunications service delivery (STeFI) will require the after obtaining the qualification license and the registration of the service in question”.
Source: Clarin
