Chile. President Sebastián Piñera began the spectrum bidding process for the development of 5G networks. With this announcement, which is concretized with the publication of the bases, a fundamental step is taken in the digital development of the country, since a new standard is established in relation to the transmission speeds of mobile data, allowing an exponential leap in the technological advancement of both the productive sectors and all citizens.
Likewise, the President informed that the Public Tender will have the obligation to connect in a first stage to the regional and provincial capitals of the country, allowing all the inhabitants to receive the benefits of the new 5G network in an equitable way regardless of their location.
To this, the creation of a public-private digital ecosystem is added, which will enhance the application of the tools of Information Technologies and contribute to the reduction of the digital divide that exists in Chile, with a long-term vision and articulated with both the public and private sectors. In fact, in a first stage, all ministries, mayors and almost 200 hospitals located in different parts of the country must be connected. In addition, experimental 5G network permits will be granted to universities, which may be applied for their own use, of public institutions, scientific centers and companies.
"The tender for band spectrum for 5G technology is based on four fundamental principles: quality, coverage, technological neutrality and security. For this reason, the contest ensures an adequate level of quality and coverage of at least 90% of the inhabitants of our country," said President Sebastián Piñera, who also stressed that "the contest we are initiating will be an open and transparent contest for all. This will be developed in two phases: the first will be of a technical nature to ensure that applicants meet the quality and coverage requirements that are set, while the second, when appropriate, will be a tender to ensure the best economic offer. "
In this way, the tender in question will generate the conditions so that at least four operators can compete in the development of new mobile technologies, ensuring that benefits such as better services and tariffs can be transferred to all telecommunications users. In turn, it will contribute 0.2% to GDP in direct investment in the first year and 0.5% after the entry of operation at the national level.
It should be noted that the last time a spectrum bidding process took place in the country was seven years ago and was carried out under the first government of President Sebastián Piñera. This meant an important boost to investment in the sector and an improvement in the quality of mobile communications for users, since the 2,600 Mhz and 700 Mhz bands were tendered, which were fundamental for the development of commercial networks in 4G technology, which today has more than 16 million users.
"Through this announcement we are fulfilling one of the main objectives that we set ourselves when we assumed this portfolio, which is to tender the new 5G network, connecting the regional capitals and provinces of the country. This Public Tender will become a new milestone in the telecommunications sector, as was the 4G tender at the time, allowing Chile to take an important step in terms of digitalization, "said the Minister of Transport and Telecommunications, Gloria Hutt.
The authority added that "the previous contest that brought us 4G technology, which is already a reality in Chile for users of Internet service and mobile broadband, generated greater competition in the industry. This seems like a good sign to us, as companies not only compete on price and quality of service, but also on the ability to technically deploy new services and, in that sense, we expect it to be similar in this 5G tender."
Meanwhile, the Undersecretary of Telecommunications, Pamela Gidi, said that "this contest will allow us to make a qualitative leap in our networks, since 1,800 MHz will be made available to companies to invest in infrastructure, a figure four times higher than the 470 MHz that have been concessioned throughout the history of the sector. Likewise, companies will have the obligation to connect all the regional and provincial capitals of the country, allowing 5G to be deployed with territorial equity. In this line, we hope that the companies will realize the interest they have shown during this last time, now participating in this contest".
This is the first spectrum tender for the development of 5G networks to be held in Latin America, thus confirming Chile's leadership in the telecommunications sector in the region. This is the result of a work that has been carried out in SUBTEL for two years, which began with a roadmap that considered stages such as the release of spectrum to later tender; public consultations on different aspects of the 5G public tender, and subsidies and public policies to double the kilometers of fiber optics available in the country. In addition, the modification of Supreme Decree 99 of 2012, allowing savings of 30% in the times of deployment of infrastructure by private parties; the elaboration of the National Spectrum Plan with consultation with the Tribunal de Defensa de Libre Competencia (TDLC); the publication of technical standards for each band to be tendered; and the creation of the first cybersecurity standard in telecommunications in Latin America.
However, for the new 5G tender, four bands with different technical characteristics (700 MHz; AWS; 3.5 GHz; and 26 GHz). In turn, four simultaneous contests will be held, but independent of each other, which will strengthen the competition, which will directly benefit users.
The tender rules are now available to all interested parties on the SUBTEL website.
First public-private digital ecosystem
As mentioned above, one of the obligations that companies that participate in the tender for the development of 5G and are awarded spectrum will be to connect, once the networks are deployed, all ministries and intendencies, as well as hospitals located in different parts of the territory to promote Telemedicine. Likewise, experimental 5G network permits will be granted to universities, thus creating the first public-private digital ecosystem.
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