Latin America. Latin America and the Caribbean still has a long way to go in planning the use of spectrum between 24 and 86 GHz (millimeter wave bands or mmWave) for mobile networks.
Although some countries had advanced with tenders during 2021, there is still much to be done according to the 2022 version of the report "Millimeter wave (mmWave) bands for 5G in Latin America and the Caribbean", published by 5G Americas.
The study reflects the importance of these bands for the deployment of a 5G ecosystem, as well as which are the main use cases within applications that will require higher transmission speeds, lower latencies and ability to serve more connections per area. In addition to those who have already assigned part of these bands, several countries in the region plan to tender the mmWave bands. In general, the dynamics presented in Latin America and the Caribbean have shown interest in the 26 GHz, 28 GHz and 39 GHz bands.
In the case of Chile, it allocated two 26 GHz blocks in 2020-2021, Brazil for its part tendered national and regional blocks of different amplitude in the same band during 2021. While Uruguay in 2019 authorized the range of 27.50-28.35 GHz in the 28 GHz band for mobile services to an operator that already had a pre-existing spectrum license, but for another class of service. In Puerto Rico and the U.S. Virgin Islands, mmWave blocks have been allocated through various spectrum auctions.
Several of the Latin American administrations had progress in identifying and reserving mmWave spectrum for the deployment of 5G services, although they have not yet been assigned. Some countries such as Mexico already have portions of this spectrum on their agendas, while others such as Argentina, Colombia and Panama show progress.
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