The Minister of Economy, Sergio Massa, announced the free availability of the 6 Gigahertz (GHz) frequency for Wi-Fi services that would be provided by US technology platforms, despite the opposition of cell phone operators and their technology providers, who have been demanding that this frequency be reserved for Fifth Generation (5G) mobile telephony services.
In an event held at the headquarters of the National Communications Agency (ENaCom), Massa announced "a strategic decision in telecommunications, by enabling spectrum in the range of the 6 Gigahertz Band, which will give a boost to the knowledge economy, SMEs and sectors of the digital world that need to use a higher quality Wi-Fi, that supports technological evolution and future developments".
"We aspire for Wi-Fi 6 to enable competitiveness for regional economies and for those who can provide services" from different parts of the country, Massa said.
And he said that during the coronavirus pandemic his son spent a lot of time in his room, with his computer, with other gamers who played games and developed content. "Much of the complaint was that to play or develop content there was three seconds of advantage" that these Brazilian boys had, because of the "latency" that Argentine connections had, said the economy minister.
"Federalizing Internet service is narrowing the digital divide," Massa said Tuesday afternoon, at an event to which numerous executives of US companies were invited, such as Facebook (Meta), Google, Apple, Microsoft, Cisco, Amazon, Intel and Qualcomm, among others.
The Minister of Economy, Sergio Massa, and the president of the National Communications Entity, Claudio Ambrosini, in the official body. Image: Youtube screenshot.
The president of ENaCom, Claudio Ambrosini, highlighted the work being done by the official body, which at the beginning of the month issued the Radio Spectrum Regulation, to advance with the fifth generation (5G) of mobile telephony. And he highlighted the compatibility between 5G and the announcement of free Wi-Fi on the frequency of 6 Gigahertz.
But the press could not participate in the event, since it was banned from entering ENaCom and had to follow the speech of Massa and Ambrosini by a Youtube link.
In fact, it was not allowed to listen to the other speeches that appear in a press release distributed by the official body, with the words of the Secretary of Knowledge Economy, Juan Manuel Cheppi; and the representative of the companies benefiting from this decision, Marina Bericua, director of Public, Corporate and Legal Affairs at Microsoft.
The directors of ENaCom, Silvana Giudici and José Corral, were not present at the event, and they were surprised because they were not invited. And they did not understand how this announcement was made on a subject that has not yet been discussed in the Board of Directors of the official body.
Neither were the cell phone technology providers, such as Ericsson, Huawei and Nokia, who had sent a note to Massa asking him not to make this decision to give free the 6 Gigahertz frequency for Wi-Fi services, since it is a frequency band that is also used to provide 5G mobile phone services. by which the State could collect millionaire figures.
Ericsson, Huawei and Nokia, along with the GSMA, sent a note to the Minister of Economy last month, highlighting "the positive impact that a decision to use the 6 GHz band could have on the Argentine economy."
There those cell phone technology providers proposed to the Government that "the mobile industry supports a balanced approach for the 6 GHZ Band in Argentina, considering the lower part (5925-6425 MHz) for unlicensed use, such as Wi-Fi, and the upper part (6425-7125 MHz) for future licensed use, such as 5G".
"A decision in this regard allows us to know the conclusions on 6 GHz that will be reached at the World Radiocommunication Conference (WRC-23), to be held in November, and access the benefits of having globally harmonized 5G spectrum," concluded the note from the mobile technology providers.
That proposal was rejected by Massa, granting global platforms such as Google and Facebook (Meta) the use of the spectrum, in the range of 5925 to 7125 MHz, in a complete way for free use, without a license, by the lenders that will not have to pay anything for the use of that radio spectrum.
But what mobile technology providers are warning about is the imbalance involved in giving a frequency for free to digital giants with global reach, as a nod to the United States.
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