Recently issued guidelines aimed at fostering competition in Argentina have prompted Telefonica to consider a legal challenge.
Argentinean authorities have suggested the revisions in an attempt to encourage new players to enter the wireless and broadcast sectors, as well as allowing players from each sector to cross into the other with multiplay offerings.
An unnamed Telefonica executive was reported by La Nacion as saying that holding a new spectrum auction as a means of driving further competition would be a “violation of the most basic rules of equality”, and describing the current rhetoric around spectrum allocation as “the prologue to another complex situation in mobile access” which could “delay…competition in the sector”.
Argentina’s telecom authorities recently announced that a spectrum auction would be held in the next six months in order to allow access to new frequencies and boost competition, thereby improving overall quality of service.
Telefonica’s Argentinean unit Movistar is one of the three major operators in Argentina, along with America Movil and Telecom Argentina. In 2014, each of these operators signed a 15-year licence agreement for 3G and 4G spectrum.
