5G: now it’s the turn of Claro Paraguay

Details: Vaughan O'Grady; Category: Wireless Networks; 22 December 2025; 9614 views

Telecoms activity, you might think, should be slowing down as the holiday season approaches – but 5G launches are still making headlines. Following recent announcements from Sri Lanka’s Dialog Axiata and SLT-Mobitel, it’s now the turn of Claro Paraguay.

In fact last week Claro became the first operator in Paraguay to officially launch its 5G services. It announced an initial investment of US$35 million in the service whose first phase will see 5G introduced in 12 major cities with help from equipment supplirer Nokia, which will be offering its AirScale 5G portfolio, powered by high-energy efficiency ReefShark System-on-Chip technology.

Claro is keen to cite the potential of 5G in areas like industry, education, health, logistics, financial services and smart cities, not to mention the speed, low latency and enhanced streaming, gaming, video calls and remote work it could enable.

However, it’s still early days for 5G in the country and, while the first services are expected to be available next year, it’s not clear when nationwide rollout will be completed. That said, the TeleSemana website quotes Alfredo Alcaraz, CEO of Claro Paraguay, who has apparently claimed: “This investment is just the beginning: next year we will continue with a sustained expansion to cover more national territory."

At the moment only two Paraguayan operators seem to be clearly committed to 5G: Claro Paraguay and newcomer Nubicom. As we reported in October, operators Tigo and Personal skipped the auction, citing restrictive rules on vendor participation that excluded Chinese equipment makers.