Telcel Closer to Bringing 5G to Mexico

At the beginning of the year, most telecommunications analysts and providers expected 5G to reach Mexico in late 2020. However, the crisis unleashed by COVID-19 caused companies to accelerate the process in order to provide a faster service now that everyone is under confinement and their internet network now plays a leading role in everyday life.

Deloitte predicted that the arrival of 5G would be until 2025 on a commercial level. Telecommunications consultant The Competitive Intelligence Unit (The CIU) also predicted a delay in the deployment of this network of at least 18 months.

Although The CIU said that the 5G network would require a new infrastructure ecosystem and this would delay the arrival of the network to the country, more and more people under lockdown are changing the forecasts. Proof of it is that in late January, Telmex transferred to Telcel its concessions on the 3.5GHz band, an essential 50MHz input that Telcel will shortly use for the deployment of 5G networks in Mexico.

This assignment occurred just months after Telmex, a subsidiary company of América Móvil, sought the renewal of frequencies for an additional period of 20 years and after agreeing separately with AT&T on the technical relocation of the concessions from January 1, 2020, to achieve efficient use of that spectrum now held by Telcel.

América Móvil will focus on rolling out 5G technology in Latin America, Chief Executive Daniel Hajj said on a call with analysts back in February. “We just launched in Austria our 5G network and we are going to do that all around Latin America in the second half of the year.” he pointed out.