The Federal Telecommunications Institute (IFT) authorized the company Radiomobile Dipsa SA de CVcontroller of the Telcel brand, exploited the band of 3.5 Gigahertz (GHz) in mobile services, after that company was only allowed to use said frequency band in fixed wireless services.
Telcel has a 100 Megahertz package of those frequencies and with national reachbut until now it was only allowed to exploit them in fixed services, for example to use them as an input for a high-speed fixed wireless Internet product.
With the authorization granted this Wednesday by the IFT, the company Telcel can now develop mobile services with high speed and robust capacity from that band, which is among the most suitable for use with 5G technology.
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”, said the IFT.
It is possible that Telcel will thus begin the deployment of its Mexican 5G network from that band, despite the fact that it has other frequencies likely to have done so since the past, for example from the 2.5 GHz spectrum.
The IFT said that after the authorization granted to Telcel, that company will carry out a payment of rights for around 900 million pesos in favor of the Federal Treasury.
The IFT regulator also allowed Telcel to exploit its 100 Megahertz frequencies in the range of 3350 to 3450 MHzso that the company can obtain greater efficiency in the exploitation of its radio signals for the provision of services to the public.
Two years ago, Telcel agreed with Telmex and Axtel to buy their various 3.5 GHz spectrum concessions from these two companies, each with a national package of 50 MHz of frequencies that later passed into the hands of that company.
Telcel now has 66% of all available frequencies to date in the 3.5 GHz range, while AT&T is the other holder, with almost 34% of available frequencies. AT&T operates its commercial 5G network in Mexico from the 2.5GHz band.
In January 2021, Radiomóvil Dipsa SA de CV, controller of the Telcel brand, requested the study and subsequent formal authorization from the Federal Telecommunications Institute for the provision of mobile services from the 3500 Megahertz (3.5 GHz) band, which had recently acquired from Telmex and Axtel.