Mexico’s telecommunications regulator IFT paved the way for the country’s largest mobile operator Telcel, owned by America Movil, to launch 5G services in the country.
In a release, the watchdog said that its plenary approved the request for modification of 18 concession titles of Telcel to use frequency bands in the 3.45-3.55 GHz segment for the provision of mobile wireless access service. Until now, the telco had authorization to exploit this frequency band for the provision of fixed wireless access services.
The regulator noted that the approved modification includes operating conditions for Telcel to provide due protection against harmful interference to satellite services that operate in the 3.4-3.7 GHz segment in Mexico.
Telcel will pay 900 million pesos ($43.8 million) per year for rights to use the spectrum, which was originally licensed for fixed services.
“With this, Telcel will be able to put into operation the largest 5G commercial network in Latin America, based on the deployment it has been carrying out for the provision of fixed wireless access services with 5G technology. In this way, our country is at the forefront in the deployment of fifth generation mobile services. The deployment of this network will also represent an improvement in the telecommunications services of all its users, thanks to the rebalancing of the traffic that it will be able to achieve through other frequency bands that Telcel has in concession,” IFT said.
América Móvil CEO Daniel Hajj said during the conference call to announce the telco’s quarterly results that the carrier has “everything ready to launch 5G” in Latin America. He highlighted that work has been done over the last few years regarding network virtualization, fiber to the node, and cell modernization to get ready for the 5G launch.
Hajj said that America Movil expects to launch 5G services in 90% of the countries where it operates during 2020. “I don’t have a specific date, but all over the year we’re working on a launch. I hope we can do it in the first semester of this year,” Hajj said.
Colombia is the only country where America Movil, which is controlled by the family of Mexican billionaire Carlos Slim, does not yet have spectrum for the launch of 5G technology, he added. “We hope that the government would speed up that option,” Hajj said.
IFT recently confirmed that the 5G spectrum auction for mobile services will take place during 2022. The 5G auction was included in the watchdog’s 2022 work plan, which outlines the bidding process for spectrum blocks in the 600MHz, 3.3GHz and 3.5GHz bands, as well as the L band.
This 5G auction was initially expected to take place in the second half of 2020, but was delayed due to the Covid-19 pandemic.
America Movil’s rival telco AT&T Mexico had recently announced that it had started the deployment of its 5G network in the country using spectrum in the 2.5 GHz band. The carrier said at the time that it had already connected the first 50 mobile devices to its 5G network.
The initial coverage of AT&T’s 5G network is limited to the Cuauhtémoc and the Napoles districts in Mexico City.
