Mexico has lagged behind in the development of productive applications, for mass consumption or for social services, using fifth generation technology as an essential input or 5G.
This is the position taken by various actors in the telecommunications industry among operators, vendors, lobbyists and some media to which the latter have transmitted their vision after Brazil and Chile began to light their first 5G-based communication networks since last November. Even the Dominican Republic, with a GDP fifteen times less than that of Mexico, has also already surpassed this country in fifth generation networks, because theirs was suspended on December 2. Whoever celebrates the push of these three countries on Mexico, forgets that Uruguay was the first country to start a commercial 5G network in the subcontinent.
Contrary to other positions are heard that Mexico, as an economy and as a telecommunications industry, is still a leader in technology adoption. Mexico was the country to advance the fastest with the 4G deployments in the region and in 2020 it registered the fastest browsing speed with this technology in all of Latin America.
As to 5G, the local industry stands out with the efforts and experiments that the companies TV Azteca, Telcel, AT&T and Megacable have been carrying out, for their part and due to the very nature of their plans and businesses. Even the financially troubled Movistar also announced its experiments with 5G three years ago.
The most recent effort is the pilot announced by AT&T to cover the heart of Mexico City with 5G, while Telcel, with all the financial muscle that allows its Ebitda of 40.5% in the third quarter of the year, has already installed networks of cells to offer 5G on the border and in the capital.
Those companies have also turned to spectrum to power up their commercial 5G networks soon. As a reminder, Telcel bought or attracted the 3.5 GHz radio bands that were owned by Axtel and Telmex; one hundred Megahertz of frequencies in total, that right now could work for that company to sell a fixed wireless Internet service and it has already requested the regulatory authority for authorization to use those bands in mobile services. AT&T also endorsed its 3.5 GHz concessions and its executives recently told a conference that they would buy more 3.5 GHz frequencies and lots on the 600 MHz in the upcoming 2022 auction.
On the government side, Mexico has in the Federal Telecommunications Institute (IFT) to one of the most prestigious authorities in Latin America in the administration of the radioelectric spectrum and always dedicated to the search for coincidences with the operators for a more appropriate management of the bands.
And Mexico, from the federal government, also offers the incentive to operators to pay annual band rights payments until 2024, if they buy spectrum and build 5G networks in very certain periods of time.
But all this is not the advantage of Mexico to catch up and then surpass Brazil or Chile in the exploitation of 5G. Nor is it a race between countries, but rather an identification of the natures and objectives that each nation can realize and achieve to improve the lives of its citizens with a technological tool such as 5G.
Mexico’s ace up its sleeve is still the immediate availability that the country has to award the 600 MHz, 1.5 GHz and 3.5 GHz bands, all of them among the most suitable for developing applications for industry, for social welfare. and also for mass consumption, but above all to squeeze investments and bring 5G coverage and service capacity more quickly to industry and society.
Neither Brazil, nor Chile, nor the Dominican Republic have liberated, for example, the band of the 600 MHz. In addition, one of those countries gives itself a period of up to ten years to release it all in its territory. Mexico, thanks to the work of the defunct Cofetel, the IFT and the Ministry of Communications and Transportation (SCT), released those 70 MHz of frequencies identified as “the second digital dividend.”
With the 600 MHz band, operators could more quickly push a 5G coverage network over the Mexican territory and due to its strength to penetrate industrial buildings, it would also be powerful to develop productive applications in industries such as the automotive, aeronautical, aerospace, maquiladora and mining sectors in which Mexico is a world leader, beyond just selling ultra-fast internet packages to look YouTube.
It also remains to know what the Mexican government will do in terms of taking advantage of the 800 MHz band with which a 5G coverage network could also be built through a statewide network with national scope and separately, if the part of the An industry that attacks Altán Redes for allegedly underusing the 700 MHz band, would stop doing so as it has a spectrum as ideal as that other, such as the 600 MHz band.
Even more important, what products and services could it build in the industry after the possibility of buying and combining bands available today in Mexico such as the 600 MHz, the L (1.5 GHz) and 3.5 GHz bands.
“Mexico has an enviable position in Latin America for the development of 5G. First, it has the best available frequency band: 600 MHz, enough to extend coverage to rural areas. Although other countries have started with 5G first, they do not have this possibility and Mexico also has medium bands, such as 3.5 GHz. And better yet, the IFT already has among its plans to incorporate the L band, of 1500 MHz ” said Gerardo Mantilla, analyst at Artifex Consulting.
By combining or combining the most suitable bands for 5G and that are already available in Mexico, as not in Chile, Brazil or the Dominican Republic, the industry will be able to maximize investments, needing fewer base stations and also building applications that are more attached to the economic and social reality of Mexico, agreed Mantilla.
Just one example, Mexico is the seventh largest agro-exporter in the world, so the so-called 600 MHz low bands work to boost the agriculture and livestock sectors. In industry, Mexico’s trade with the United States is close to 2,000 million dollars per day; There, the 600 MHz band in conjunction with the L band will make growth promises come true in tertiary economic sectors.
“This opportunity that Mexico has, due to the excellent spectrum management carried out by the IFT, is not available in Brazil or Chile, who did start their 5G first, but do not have, for example, the benefits of having the bands of 600 MHz and 1500 MHz. This band is to carry coverage in rural areas and also in large cities because it allows coverage inside buildings, which is not possible with the medium bands. (…) Brazil, Chile and the Dominican Republic do not have the 1500 MHz band available. Chile and Brazil do not yet have the 600 MHz band. Television has that band and it is quite a challenging process to carry out a clearance of the frequencies of digital television stations ”.
Beyond Brazil or Chile, in Central America the band of the 700 MHz after the recent liberation that was achieved there of her. The 600 MHz band is not available there today either.
If Mexico, mainly the Legislative and the Ministry of Finance, which due to their public policies caused the recent spectrum auction for 4G-LTE to wreck, identifies that in the low bands of 600 MHz it has an ace up its sleeve to carry coverage and capacity of 5G to the population, the country could clearly be in the leadership of 5G in Latin America, said Gerardo Mantilla, from Artifex Consulting.
“The 600 MHz and 1500 MHz are the ace up its sleeve, because even after Mexico has started after Brazil and Chile, it can cover the entire country more quickly and with better coverage and speed available. First advantage: for a station in the 600 MHz band, 20 to 25 stations in the 3.5 GHz band (the Chilean and Brazilian band) are required to cover the same coverage area. And if you use the 1500 MHz band, together with the 3.5 GHz band. That number can be halved, that is, to 10 or 12 stations to cover the same area as the station in the 600 MHz band ”.
Reference-www.eleconomista.com.mx