Page 110 - SAMENA Trends - August 2020

REGULATORY & POLICY UPDATES SAMENA TRENDS

The Directing Council of the National fixed 5G and WiFi 6. The 1.9 GHz bands and 2.5 GHz,
Telecommunications Agency (Anatel) decided in turn, were allocated to 3G and 4G technologies in
unanimously, to send to the Superintendence of previous Anatel tenders; the remaining lots must be
Granting and Provisioning Resources (SOR) proposals the subject of a public call. The public call process,
Brazil for public calls to assess the existence of possible it should be clarified, aims to raise the number of
interested parties in the use of the 1.9 GHz, 2.5 GHz possible interested parties in order to allow the Agency
and 39.5 GHz bands to provide broadband service. The to decide whether to carry out a bidding process for the
39.5 GHz band has been increasingly used in several sale of radio frequency use authorizations.
countries for the provision of high capacity wireless (August 6, 2020) anatel.gov.br
broadband and its use is studied for applications in

Chile’s Undersecretary of Telecommunications Pamela between 13 October and 19 October. Announcing
Gidi has responded to criticism from consumer rights the publication of the documents, Chilean President
activists Conadecus for not including in the tender Sebastian Pinera was quoted as saying: ‘the spectrum
documents for 5G spectrum an obligation for licensees tender for 5G technology is based on four fundamental
Chile to provide coverage in rural areas. Diario Financiero principles: quality, coverage, technological neutrality
and security. For this reason, the contest ensures
quotes the official as saying that ‘5G is not a tool for
closing the digital divide and the big problem is the an adequate level of quality and coverage of at least
fixed internet.’ The consumer advocate organization 90% of the inhabitants of our country.’ The president
claimed that the Department of Telecommunications went on to claim that the technology would initially
(Subsecretaria de Telecomunicaciones, Subtel) had contribute 0.2% to GDP in direct investment in the first
missed an opportunity as the upcoming 5G spectrum year and 0.5% one the networks are operational at a
auction will feature a block of 700MHz spectrum, national level. (August 18, 2020) commsupdate.com
which is well-suited to providing services in rural
and remote areas. Elaborating on the decision to Chile’s telecom sector watchdog the Department of
exclude such requirements from the auction, the Telecommunications (Subtel) has set out the timeline
Undersecretary argued that fiber rather than mobile for four separate, parallel 5G spectrum auctions, to
infrastructure would be required to narrow the digital take place in Q4 2020, Diario Financiero writes. The
divide. The official noted that whilst 54% of Chileans tenders are for spectrum to be used for LTE-A Pro,
have a fixed broadband connection, only a quarter of 5G (or better) technologies and comprise airwaves
those are fiber. Ms. Gidi went on to explain that there in the following bands: 703MHz-713MHz/758MHz-
are currently issues with both the supply and demand 768MHz; 1755MHz-1770MHz/2155MHz-2170MHz;
sides of the equation, with people able to afford fibre 3300MHz-3400MHz and 3600MHz-3650MHz; and
connectivity in areas that are not covered and people 25.9GHz-27.5GHz. Documents related to the tenders
in areas with fiber coverage that cannot afford the will be published by Subtel on 17 August, followed by a
service. To address these issues, Subtel is looking to public consultation process between 7 September and
regulatory changes in the form of a universal service 28 September. Interested parties will then have until 19
bill and a possible subsidy. Movistar threw its weight October to submit applications.
behind Subtel’s decision, with Director of Strategy, (August 3, 2020) commsupdate.com
Regulation and Corporate Affairs Fernando Saiz quoted
as saying: ‘5G is not a panacea, it is a super important Chile’s Comptroller General has taken note of
technology for industrial uses, automating processes legislation regulating guaranteed minimum internet
and applications such as IoT. It is useful for companies access speeds, with implementation set to begin later
and entrepreneurs but not so much for people.’ this week, following the publication of the regulations
(August 21, 2020) commsupdate.com in the Official Gazette. The long-running initiative under
the Department of Telecommunications (Subsecretaria
Chilean regulator the Department of de Telecomunicaciones, Subtel) comprises a series
Telecommunications (Subtel) has published the tender of regulations governing commercial offers and the
documents for the nation’s upcoming 5G spectrum provision of broadband services and aims to ensure that
auctions. The regulator is planning to hold four parallel the users receive the download speeds featured in their
sales, one for each of the bands in which spectrum is contracts. The regulations include the establishment
being made available: 700MHz, 2100MHz, 3500MHz of an Independent Technical Organization (Organismo
and 26GHz. Each of the concessions will have a duration Tecnico Independiente, OTI) that will be responsible
of 30 years and, following a consultation period, for conducting periodic measurements to ensure that
interested bidders will be able to submit applications providers are delivering promised access speeds. The

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