There is a major shortfall of spectrum allocations in Latin American countries, according to 5G Americas.
Latin America countries have not yet allocated at least 35 percent of 1960 MHz of radio spectrum till March 2017 — prescribed by the International Telecommunication Union (ITU) recommends by 2020 for an optimal mobile broadband performance.
International Telecommunication Union (ITU) says that a range of 1280 and 1720 MHz of spectrum for mobile services should be allocated by 2020. While the ITU – R M.2290 stipulated between 1340 and 1960 MHz the amount of spectrum for 2020.
Considering the estimation of 1300 MHz for 2015 formulated by the same agency, as of March 2017 they had 350.74.11 MHz allocated on average in the region 26.96 percent.
Six countries have allocated more than 400 MHz; four have allocated below 400 MHz, but above 300 MHz, and the rest of the countries have allocated between 208 and 290 MHz.
Only seven markets exceed 30 percent of the goal and eight are above 20 percent. Meanwhile, three countries are below 20 percent.
Brazil has allocated the equivalent of 31.1 percent of the 1960 MHz that ITU suggests by 2020.
Some of the countries that have awarded the larger amounts of spectrum for the Latin America region are Chile (24 percent), Mexico (23.7 percent), Argentina (23.6 percent), Costa Rica (23.5 percent), and Nicaragua (21.4 percent), according to the recently published 5G Americas Analysis of ITU Spectrum Recommendations in Latin America paper.
Latin American mobile market
Ovum says Latin American mobile market increased from 60 million users in 2000 to 701 million in 2016.
Mobile broadband will represent 91 percent of all the mobile lines in Latin America by 2020. Cisco says the growth in data traffic will increase in Latin America from 447,991 terabytes monthly in 2016 to 2,091,073 in 2020.
5G Americas, analyzing the spectrum allocations in Latin America, said that the spectrum shortage throughout the region will have negative consequences– for consumers, in the development of the economy and in the potential growth of industry.
