The Ministry of Information Technology and Communications (Ministerio de Tecnologias de la Informacion y las Comunicaciones, MinTIC) confirmed that it has increased wireless spectrum caps in an effort to help the country’s cellcos to increase the capacities of their respective networks. As per Decree 2194 of 2017 MinTIC has raised the cap covering the sub-1GHz ‘low bands’ (689MHz to 960MHz) from 30MHz to 45MHz per operator, while simultaneously increasing the spectrum cap in the ‘high bands’ (1710MHz to 2690MHz) from 85MHz to 90MHz.
The spectrum cap increase is expected to allow the watchdog’s planned auction of frequencies in the 700MHz and 1900MHz bands to get back on track. The delayed auction will primarily comprise spectrum in the 703MHz-748MHz and 758MHz-803MHz bands, alongside a supplementary 2×2.5MHz block of 1900MHz spectrum, made up of frequencies in the 1865MHz-1867.5MHz/1945MHz-1947.5MHz bands.