The Spanish operators just secured 700 MHz of spectrum in the auctions that just concluded. Spain's Ministry of Economic Affairs and Digital Transformation has details here and the PDF of final results is here. TelecomTV nicely summarises the results as follows:
Spain’s auction of 700 MHz spectrum for 5G services was concluded in just one day, with the government raising little more than the minimum reserve prices for the blocks snapped up by Orange, Telefónica and Vodafone: The country’s fourth mobile operator, Másmóvil, did not participate.
Orange paid the starting price of €350 million for two blocks of 2x5 MHz spectrum. Vodafone also paid the reserve price of €350 million for its 2x10 MHz of capacity.
Only Telefónica (Movistar) paid above the minimum required: It shelled out €310.089 million for its 2x10 MHz (the starting price for that tranche had been €270 million).
The spectrum licensed can be used for downlink and uplink connectivity, which is what the operators need for their 5G service offerings: The 700 MHz band enables operators to extend the reach of their next-gen mobile networks outdoors (so it is particularly useful for non-urban areas) and to better penetrate buildings with their 5G signals and so is attracting increasing operator investment, with China Mobile having just announced the results of its initial 700 MHz 5G radio access network equipment tender.
In total, then, the Spanish government raised just over €1.01 billion: In the scheme of things that’s not much for the government coffers but it also isn’t sapping the operators of funds that can be used to build out their networks. Three blocks of 5 MHz spectrum that could be used only for downlink connections were not taken up by the operators and have been classified by Spain’s Ministry of Economic Affairs and Digital Transformation as “deserted.”
The fourth mobile operator in terms of market share, Masmovil, opted out of the process earlier this month. Players did not bid for any of the 5MHz blocks of non-paired spectrum available and the auction did not reach the 2.1 billion EUR target set by the regulator.
All licences will be valid for a period of 20 years and extendable for a further 20-year period. The operators are obligated to activate 5G services in 450 localities with populations above 50,000 by the end of June 2025, as well as covering the country’s largest airports, train stations and motorways.
This was Spain’s second sale of 5G-suitable spectrum, following an auction covering the 3.6GHz to 3.8GHz bands in 2018. A third and last 5G spectrum auction, this time in the 26GHz band, is planned to take place before the end of the year.
Eswatini (or eSwatini) formerly called Swaziland is a sovereign state in Southern Africa, neighboured by Mozambique and the Republic of South Africa. It's a landlocked country of 17,000 km2 and approximately 1.2 million inhabitants. It is one of the smallest countries in Africa. It was one of the last countries in the world to abolish an almost complete monopoly in all sectors of its telecom market. Until 2011 the state-owned Eswatini Posts and Telecommunications also acted as the industry regulator and had a stake in the country’s sole mobile network, in an uneasy partnership with MTN Eswatini.
Eswatini now has two mobile network providers: MTN Eswatini (formerly MTN Swaziland) and Eswatini Mobile (formerly: Swazi Mobile).
A new independent regulatory authority was established in late 2013 and has since embarked on significant changes to the telecom sector. Eswatini Telecom was provided with a unified licence in early 2016, while MTN Eswatini secured spectrum in the 1800MHz band to provide LTE services. Eswatini Mobile has launched GSM, 3G and LTE services, supported by a network sharing agreement with MTN Eswatini.
Mobile market penetration in Eswatini is well above the average for the region, though this is largely due to subscribers taking SIM cards from both networks in order to access cheaper on-net calls. Subscriber growth has slowed in recent years and has been affected by the economic slow-down resulting from the Covid-19 pandemic.
Eswatini is landlocked and so depends on neighbouring countries for international fibre bandwidth. This has meant that access pricing is relatively high, though prices have fallen more recently in line with greater bandwidth availability resulting from several new submarine fibre optic cable systems that have reached the region in recent years. In addition, Paratus in September 2020 completed a terrestrial cable linking Mozambique with South Africa and running through Eswatini.
There are very few operators actually offering international roaming in Eswatini. Not even all South African providers, but only MTN for a surcharge.
Up to 2017 MTN Swaziland, also called MTN Swazi and now renamed to MTN Eswatini, was the only provider in the country. It has a quite good coverage up to 4G/LTE at rather high prices. That's why many local people complain about rates higher than in South Africa.
2G is up to EDGE on 900 MHz, 3G on 2100 MHz and 4G/LTE was added in 2014 on 1800 MHz (Band 3).
Newly licensed operator Eswatini Mobile broke the monopoly of MTN in the country when it launched on 28/7/2017. It shares tower infrastructure with incumbent MTN. The operator has disclosed plans to invest SZL 600 million (US$ 44.8 million) in its network over the course of the next 5 years. In 2019 it was renamed to Eswatini Mobile after the country changed names.
The newcomer is headed by local tycoon Victor Gamedze and was awarded a concession in December 2016, fending off competition from locally-owned SDnet and international providers Viettel and Orange.
The network is started in Mbabane, Ezulwini, Matsapha, Manzini and 24 other towns. Their service covers 80% of the population in 2017. All sites have 4G/3G/2G voice and data services and now cover major parts.
As part of its ‘Ambition 2025: Leading digital solutions for Africa’s progress’ strategy, African mobile operator MTN Group has selected Finnish vendor Tecnotree to be responsible for overseeing the digital transformation of its operations in Benin, Cote d’Ivoire, Eswatini, South Sudan and Zambia. Tecnotree, which specialises in developing software support systems to telecom services providers, has secured a five-year deal to provide MTN Benin, MTN Cote d’Ivoire, MTN Eswatini, MTN South Sudan and MTN Zambia with cutting-edge software solutions that will enable them to provide customers with new cloud-based services.
The award of the contract to Tecnotree comes in the wake of the South Africa-based group’s announcement earlier this month that it plans to modernise its networks using Open RAN technology, allowing for the rapid expansion of 4G and 5G population coverage across its markets, in support of Ambition 2025. Under the plan, MTN aims to roll out Open RAN across its entire African network by the end of 2021 working in collaboration with its partners Altiostar, Mavenir, Parallel Wireless, TechMahindra and Voyage.
Pro-democracy protests are currently ongoing in Eswatini, the government has ordered network providers MTN Eswatini and Eswatini Mobile to disconnect the nation. The connection was restored yesterday amid court challenge.
Singtel announced the launch its 5G Standalone (SA) network in May, offering customers early access to the most advanced 5G connectivity globally. Compared to 4G, 5G SA delivers twice the responsiveness, 30% faster uploads, and strengthened authentication and encryption capability. With much greater bandwidth and near-instant responses, 5G SA will enable revolutionary applications like self-driving cars, real-time immersive entertainment, and massive IoT (Internet of Things) connections.
This infographic shows all the things 5G Standalone can do.
In addition, Singtel also produced a series of 5G videos explaining the benefits of 5G from Standalone point of view.
Since last September, Singtel has been operating Singapore’s fastest 5G NSA network under a market trial, offering 5G speeds of up to 1.2 Gbps. Within a year of receiving its 5G licence, Singtel has now turned on 5G SA and deployed over a thousand 5G sites across Singapore in strategic locations such as Orchard Road, the Central Business District, Marina Bay, Harbourfront and Sentosa, as well as major residential areas including Sengkang, Punggol, Pasir Ris, Jurong East, Woodlands, and more. It is the only telco in Singapore to roll out in-building 5G, covering popular malls such as VivoCity and Ngee Ann City, and will continue to expand its indoor 5G footprint in the coming months.
On the enterprise front, Singtel is focused on accelerating 5G innovation and 5G adoption, launching Genie, the world’s first portable 5G-in-a-box platform and expanding its 5G ecosystem with 5G Multi-access Edge Compute trials in collaboration with Microsoft Azure and Amazon Web Services.
All consumers in Singapore can trial 5G’s ultra-fast speeds and ultra-low latency at Singtel’s 5G experience zones in selected Singtel Shops, UNBOXED and UNBOXED Lite on Orchard Road.
Although Bolivia had enjoyed strong economic growth prior to the Covid-19 pandemic, GDP remains among the lowest in South America. Many areas of the country outside the main cities are poor and undeveloped, and there is a sizeable proportion of the population which live in remote valleys and areas where telecom infrastructure has been chronically neglected. As a result, the penetration of telecom services is relatively low.
State-owned Empresa Nacional de Telecomunicaciones (Entel) is the country’s incumbent long-distance operator, also offering local telephony, DSL, and pay TV services. Its subsidiary Entel Movil is Bolivia’s largest mobile network provider.
Bolivia has almost twenty times as many mobile phone subscribers as fixed line connections, and the trend towards fixed-mobile substitution continues. Besides Entel, two other companies offer mobile telephony: Tigo, wholly owned by Luxembourg-based Millicom International, and NuevaTel, trading as Viva and controlled by Trilogy International. A proposed deal to merge Millicom’s business units in the region with those of Liberty Latin America was called off in February 2019.
Due to the poor quality, high cost, and poor reach of DSL, mobile networks have become the principal platform for voice services and data access. The take-up of services based on LTE has risen steadily as network builds have developed. Tigo launched the first LTE services in mid-2014, followed by Viva in mid-2015. By early 2021 both companies’ networks reached more than 95% of the population. About 92% of all internet accesses are via smartphones.
2G and 3G is on 850 and 1900 MHz with variable coverage. 4G/LTE started in 2013/4/5 on all three providers: Entel uses 700 MHz (B13), Tigo 700 (B17) and 1700 MHz (AWS, B4) and Viva 1700 (AWS, B4) MHz only. 4G/LTE is now given out by all providers to prepaid customers without surcharges.
Coverage and speeds can be very different according to location. Generally, they are a bit lower than in neighbouring countries, but operators need to invest heavily to catch up.
Entel for Empresa Nacional de Telecomunicaciones S.A. is the state-owned incumbent provider in Bolivia. It's still the market leader with a share of 44% of national customers in 2015. It provides the best coverage even in remote areas. It started with 4G/LTE on 700 MHz (B13) in 2014 in the cities of La Paz, El Alto, Santa Cruz and Cochabamba. Their 4G footprint is expanded gradually to other departmental capital cities and larger cities
Entel has announced that it has successfully trialled 5G at the Expocruz 2019 event in Santa Cruz. The tests were carried out in conjunction with Chinese vendor Huawei and achieved downlink transmission speeds of up to 1Gbps. Entel claims that the trial makes it the first Bolivian mobile operator to demonstrate 5G technology.
Tigo run by internattional Millicom Group is the second provider in Bolivia with a market share of 29%. It was the first to deploy 4G/LTE in 2013, which has spread to at least one city covered in each of Bolivia’s eleven departments: 4G coverage. 2G and 3G are on 850 MHz. 4G is on bands 4 (1700 MHz) and 17 (700 MHz).
Viva run by Nuevatel PCS is the smallest of the three providers with a 27% market share, but the only one who gained customers by its very low rates. Where it has coverage, it sells data at the lowest prices. It was the last to start 4G/LTE in summer 2015 in the La Paz area: 4G coverage area. 2G is on 1900, 3G is on 850 MHz, 4G is on band 4.
Stupidity is international.
Burning of 5G masts started in Bolivia. Problem is, they don't have a 5G network. https://t.co/TJUGRVH1Ai
There are no plans or announcements on 5G in Bolivia. Last year a lot of mobile masts were destroyed due to massive amount of misinformation spread about Covid. As a result, Entel, the state-owned telecommunications company headquartered in Bolivia, recently piloted an automatic traffic monitoring trial in Chile, utilising 5G wireless connectivity and AI. It is much safer to wait for any 5G trials in Bolivia.
The liberalisation of Poland telecom market has resulted in considerable development in the broadband and mobile sectors. The incumbent operator, Orange Poland, dominates the broadband market and has invested in fibre infrastructure to support the growing adoption of bundled services among customers.
The Polish mobile market is vibrant and growing with a total of about 53.9 million mobile subscriptions. Orange is the largest operator by market share in the country followed closely by Play. The mobile market in recent years has been characterised by the rapid extension of LTE networks and the development of mobile data services based on newly released and re-farmed spectrum. The regulator’s attempts to auction spectrum in a range of bands has been delayed, with spectrum in the 5G-suitable 3.4-3.8GHz range having been suspended to later in 2021 as a result of the Covid-19 outbreak and legislative changes.
Mobile penetration in Poland is above the European average, though this partly reflects the continuing popularity among consumers to keep two or more SIM cards, which has distorted the real mobile penetration rate. Nevertheless, the distortion has been addressed on two fronts: by network operators being encouraged to disconnect dormant SIM cards, and by legislation which obliges subscribers of prepaid services to register their details. These forces have resulted in a significant readjustment in the number of subscribers in the market.
The market has effective competition from four MNOs, and has room for more than two dozen MVNOs though many of these are small operators with marginal market share. ARPU has been adversely affected by retail tariff competition and by regulatory mandated reductions in mobile termination rates and roaming tariffs. In addition, roaming revenue has been deeply affected by the decline in international travel since 2020. However, operators anticipate that ARPU will rise in line with consumer adoption of mobile data services, facilitated by improved network infrastructure.
Poland's 4 GSM-based network providers are: Play (by P4), Orange (formerly IDEA), Plus (by Polkomtel, merged with Aero2) and T-Mobile (formerly ERA).
More and more MVNOs and subsidiaries of the operators are arriving on the scene competing with four major operators and reselling their networks. The first 4 operators have pretty similar market shares around 25%. Their price battles have led to one of the lowest rates for data in the EU for the consumer, but to congestion and slow speeds at peak times too.
3G is phasing out and operators moves available resources to 4G/5G networks.
Situation with 5G is very tricky - 5G works with Dynamic Spectrum Sharing (DSS) mainly on 2100 MHz, which offers maximal speed of 300 Mbps but usually is even slower than LTE-A. In contrast to others, Plus/Aero2 works on TDD 2600 MHz, which now offers the fastest speeds (up to 600 Mb/s). Resources from 3400 - 3800 MHz and 700 MHz are expected to be auditioned in summer 2021.
T-Mobile Poland announced that will shutdown their 3G network by the end 2023 and will begin in 2021 and refarm these spectrums for 4G/5G. Play confirmed, that will shut off completely 2G and 3G for 7 years. Plus and Orange also will shut down their 3G network, but there is no information about time of disabling.
OpenSignal’s recent analysis of Poland found that Orange also dominated the OpenSignal awards winning five of the seven awards. The operator won in Video Experience, Download Speed Experience, Upload Speed Experience, 4G Availability and 4G Coverage Experience.
Interestingly, they also found that 4G Availability is fairly strong in the country with three of the four national operators achieving 4G Availability greater than 85%, while Orange slightly exceeded the coveted 90% Availability mark.
However, this may be an area to watch as late last year Play expanded its 4G LTE network to many more cities and we may see that continue in 2020.
When it comes to 5G, Poland recently postponed the auction of 5G spectrum licenses in the 3.4GHz-3.8GHz bands due to the COVID-19 pandemic. Nevertheless, some operators are moving forward with their 5G deployments.
Interestingly, T-Mobile stood out in Voice App Experience where it won the award with a score of 80.1 on a 0-100 scale, which puts it into the Good category. This means many users were satisfied with minor quality impairments such as occasional clicking sounds. The other three operators were close behind with scores of 79.3 and higher, which falls into the Acceptable category. This means that while users were satisfied, there were perceptible call quality impairments experienced by some users.
Play, owned by P4, used to be the smallest of the 4 network operators in Poland. But their aggressive marketing, has grown their subscribers.
By mid-2020, it had covered 98.7% of the population with 3G/UMTS, which is called "4G". LTE, which is called "4G LTE" by Play, covers 99% of population. "4G LTE Ultra" is an area where LTE Advanced is available (maximal speed: 300 Mbit/s) covering 91%. Play has also started with "5G READY", which you can get over 600 Mbps on compatible devices, but coverage is limited - 48%. 5G is available on 2100 MHz (n1) frequency for prepaid plans, but you need a special package activated.
Play has around 9000 of its own towers in the country, more than Plus. Play customers using most tariffs are allowed to roam for free on other Polish networks in places without Play's own coverage. Now, you can roam to 4G/LTE on Orange network and on 3G network of T-Mobile. Roaming speed stays always limited to 3 Mbit/s for download and 1 Mbit/s for upload. Be aware that the budget Internet na Kartę tariff is excluded from all domestic roaming and stays on Play's limited own network only. National data roaming is coming to end in 2021 upon the expiry of the agreements. At least that motivates Play to build way more own stations in last years.
Play is trialling 4G and 5G equipment with Korean vendor Samsung. The trial will be conducted this summer in Play’s labs and on its live network in Warsaw, testing interoperability with the operator’s existing network equipment. Samsung will provide its latest 4G and 5G solutions, including 4G radios, 5G Massive MIMO radios and baseband units, utilising low and mid-band spectrum.
Orange has good coverage in Poland. LTE is open for prepaid and covers already 99.85% of population in 2018 with speeds up to 600 Mbps. 5G is also available on 2100 MHz (n1) frequency but you'll need a special package to access it.
Orange has biggest network sharing with T-Mobile called NetWorks! Both operators are building a common cellular network and subscribers can use both networks base stations (that is not equal to domestic roaming, but basically Orange and T-Mobile subscribers are sharing the same antennas, but don't share frequencies).
Last month Orange unveiled its new business strategy to June 2024. The new strategy, under the name of .Grow, is based on four pillars: creating value in the company’s core business, particularly in the context of optical fibre and convergence; creating new solutions for business, using the latest technologies, such as 5G; further transformation of the company thanks to digitisation; and responsible management.
Plus (formerly Plus GSM) is the brand name of Poland's mobile phone network operator Polkomtel. The company is entirely owned by Spartan Capital Holdings sp. z o.o.
Plus has a good coverage throughout the country on 2G and 3G while their 4G/LTE (called LTE PLUS) network already covers 99% right now and speeds up to 150 Mbps. LTE-Advanced (called LTE PLUS ADVANCED) is available for 73% of Polish population, is open for prepaid with speeds up to 600 Mbps. 5G in Plus is available for prepaid customers up to 31.05.2021 without special packages. Plus is the local Vodafone partner.
Before 2011 T-Mobile used to be a second operator in Poland, but after rebranding to "T-Mobile.pl" (from "Era") and during period with disappointing offers compared to other operators, it started losing customers. Currently it has least market share.4G/LTE is open for prepaid and covers most of the population. On the majority of 4G base stations LTE Advanced is available to compatible devices at no extra cost. LTE-A in a T-Mobile can offer up to 700 Mbit/s of download speed. T-Mobile also offers 5G network on 2100 MHz (n1) frequency, but have to activate selected package. The operator is expanding its range of products in the GO! pre-paid range to include 5G connectivity in the ‘No Limit XL’ tariff. Users must pay PLN39 (USD10.11) per month for access to 5G services. The cellco says it now offers 31 handsets which support 5G.
It has the biggest network and most extensive coverage in Poland. T-Mobile has a union with Orange Polska to improve infrastructure called NetWorks! - T-Mobile and Orange are building cellular network together, but don't share frequencies. That subscribers can use both networks base stations (that is not equal to domestic roaming, but basically T-Mobile and Orange subscribers are using the same antennas).
Regarding the upcoming 5G spectrum auctions, 5G observatory reports:
The updated version of the National Broadband Plan covering the 2020-2025 period adopted in November 2020 include plans for 5G in the country:
700 MHz frequencies should be assigned by 30 July 2022
3480-3800 MHz frequencies should be assigned by 31 August 2021 (initial goal of 30 July 2020 not met)
26 GHz frequencies should be assigned by 31 December 2022
Hopefully the end users will finally be able to enjoy faster speeds after the C band spectrum auctions in August.
Vodafone has been a huge supporter of the Open RAN movement. Not only have they supported it with projects, expertise, etc., they have also contributed their IPR to TIP to drive it further. Last year, I wrote about how they have been evangelizing the benefits to other operators. Now, Vodafone has unveiled its strategic vendors – Dell, NEC, Samsung Electronics, Wind River, Capgemini Engineering and Keysight Technologies – to jointly deliver the first commercial deployment of Open Radio Access Network (RAN) in Europe. A press release said:
The company believes the move will spark other large-scale Open RAN launches and spearhead the next wave of digital transformation across Europe.
Pioneered by Vodafone and its partners, Open RAN will drive greater innovation through a diverse and open vendor ecosystem. It will lead to a more cost-effective, secure, energy efficient and customer-focused network of the future.
Vodafone’s initial focus will be on the 2,500 sites in the UK that it committed to Open RAN in October 2020. It is one of the largest deployments in the world and will be built jointly with Dell, NEC, Samsung and Wind River. Vodafone also expects to use new radio equipment defined under the Evenstar programme, a joint initiative it contributes to. Capgemini Engineering and Keysight Technologies are providing support to ensure interoperability between all the components.
Starting this year, the vendors will work with Vodafone to extend 4G and 5G coverage to more rural places across the South West of England and most of Wales, moving into urban areas in a later phase. Vodafone is also working to launch Open RAN in other countries within both Europe and Africa, enabling the digital society to be accessible to all, with no one left behind.
Under this initiative to deliver an open and disaggregated network in the UK, Samsung will be a reference RAN software provider. Samsung and NEC will supply Massive MIMO – a method to boost capacity of a mobile antenna – along with Samsung and Evenstar radio units, which establish a signal between users’ smartphones or devices and the mobile mast.
Evenstar radios are part of a joint effort between Facebook and Vodafone to create ‘white-box’ radio units within the Telecom Infra Project (TIP) and are a key component for Open RAN success. These will provide vendors with detailed specifications needed to develop compatible radio units much more cheaply, and are designed to encourage new players to the market to boost the ecosystem and stimulate innovation.
The initial deployments will be implemented using COTS (common off the shelf) Dell EMC PowerEdge servers to support the combined DU/CU function running Containers as a Service (CaaS) software from Wind River Studio, which will provide a distributed cloud-native platform hosting the Open RAN applications and virtualised RAN from Samsung. This gives Vodafone the benefit of being able to mix and match and install new software releases and upgrades more easily.
Keysight Technologies will deliver its comprehensive Open RAN test solution portfolio designed to support conformance, interoperability and E2E system testing. Capgemini Engineering will be the key partner within our lab testing to ensure interworking of the Open RAN multi-vendor ecosystem.
The O-RAN Alliance 7-2x split, that defines the interface between the radio antenna and the baseband unit, will be used in the deployments, following successful test and simulations that make it the option of choice. The resulting Open RAN network is expected to improve energy efficiency compared to the existing solution from traditional widely deployed RAN products.
In addition, Vodafone is working with several chipset suppliers, including an important research & development (R&D) collaboration with Intel, whose role in developing Open RAN is widely recognized in the industry. Vodafone’s Open RAN Test and Integration lab in Newbury, UK, has been devised to be an innovation centre to foster collaboration and implement new ideas. In this space, Vodafone’s newly announced partnership with Qualcomm will provide solutions that will be added to the project in the future.
The new Open RAN lab will be complemented by two newly created European digital skills hubs in Málaga and Dresden, employing 600 and 200 people respectively. Opening later this year, the skill hubs will be used to develop a number of new solutions for businesses, including cyber security, mobile private networks and Open RAN.
Vodafone is working with other operators to lower the entry barriers for smaller vendors and startups. Recently published Open RAN technical requirements by Vodafone and other telecommunications companies will provide a blueprint to help expedite the development of new products and services based on industry specifications from the O-RAN Alliance (of which Vodafone is a member) and eventually ETSI standards (from the European Telecommunications Standards Institute), always compatible with 3GPP.
Hi-Samsung is one of our partners to deploy OpenRAN across 2500 sites in the UK, providing 2G/4G/5G radio & Massive MIMO unit, and will be the reference RAN software provider. This agreement between Samsung & Vodafone focuses on the OpenRAN & not the Core or the wider 5G rollout
There was a considerable amount of confusion regarding different G's and Core, etc. It was all clarified in a Tweet from VF UK Communications Manager as can be seen above. It seems that Samsung went off and dusted their 2G stack to support a legacy technology along with 4G and 5G.
Peru is the third largest country in South America, after Brazil and Argentina. It's roughly over three times the size of Japan or Germany or five times as large as UK. Having said that, its population is just over 33 million. It is made up of a variety of landscapes, from mountains and beaches to deserts and rain forests. Most people live along the coast of the Pacific Ocean, where the capital, Lima, is located.
Peru’s fixed-line teledensity remains among the lowest in South America, with obstacles to fixed-line growth including widespread poverty, fixed-to-mobile substitution, expensive telephone services, and geographical inaccessibility in the rugged Andean mountains and lowland Amazon jungles. The government is addressing these shortcomings via ambitious investment plans to deploy telecom infrastructure and services in underserved areas. Most of the work was complete by the end of 2017, when eight regional fibre-based networks were connected to the National Fibre-Optic Backbone.
Broadband penetration in Peru is considerably lower than the Latin American average, despite government efforts to encourage the development of the sector.
Mobile penetration is on a par with the regional average, though high penetration is attributed to the popular use (especially among urban dwellers) of multiple mobile subscriptions. This phenomenon is becoming less pronounced as network operators respond to market competition by providing generous data and voice bundles (so obviating the need for SIM cards from different networks) and as the regulator endeavours to remove illegal devices and unregistered SIM cards from the market.
Telefónica Perú (trading as Movistar Perú) is the leading player in the mobile market, followed by Claro Perú, Entel Perú and Viettel (trading as Bitel). The market still has considerable potential to expand, especially given the country’s low fixed broadband penetration which has encouraged the uptake of mobile data services. By late 2020, the mobile broadband penetration rate reached 69% of the population.
2G/GSM and 3G/UMTS are on 850 and 1900 MHz on the three major operators Movistar, Claro and Entel. 4G/LTE has started in 2014 in major cities on AWS frequency 1700/2100 MHz on Movistar and Entel and 1900 MHz on Claro and is already open for prepaid. Soon on all three operators the 700 MHz frequency (Band 28) will be added. Bitel has a limited 3G network so far on 900 and 1900 MHz and launched 4G/LTE on 900 MHz (Band 8).
In the most recent OpenSignal report Entel was the dominant operator as far as the awards table was concerned, winning three out of seven awards outright and jointly winning another three. This time round, both it and Movistar each hold two awards outright and two jointly. However, Entel remains the operator with the best scores for our two speed metrics — Download Speed Experience and Upload Speed Experience. Neither operator has been able to challenge Claro’s grip on the 4G Coverage Experience award.
Also, Bitel users’ mobile experience has improved very significantly since the previous report, with impressive gains seen across Video Experience, Download Speed Experience, Upload Speed Experience and 4G Availability. With the exception of 4G Availability, much of the improvement made up for the lost ground seen back in the August 2020 report, when many scores dropped significantly due to the headwinds created by the COVID-19 pandemic. However, Bitel’s scores in this report for Video Experience, Download Speed Experience and Upload Speed Experience have risen more strongly than other operators and are up by 6 points (15.1%), 1 Mbps (23.8%) and 0.6 Mbps (30.5%) respectively from the scores in Opensignal’s February 2020 report.
Although operators are yet to launch commercial 5G services for smartphone users and the auctioning of spectrum in the 3.5 GHz and 26 GHz bands will not take place until 3Q 2021, there have still been a number of interesting developments in the Peruvian mobile market since the last report. These include the news that the country’s Ministry of Transport and Communications (MTC) is seeking to invest around $413 million to bring 4G connectivity to more than 2,600 communities. In addition, MTC has also published draft network sharing regulations that it believes will cut the cost of network rollout and make it easier to serve rural areas.
Movistar in Peru, owned by Spanish Telefónica, is the biggest provider and market leader in the country. It has more than 1/2 of all mobile customers and the best coverage (coverage map). But this comes at the highest prices. Also, you should keep in mind when you are travelling overland between major cities many hours without any signal are common.
4G/LTE has started in 2014 on the AWS frequency of 1700/2100 MHz (band 4) and added 700 MHz (band 28) which is open to all prepaid tariffs. Movistar guarantees speeds of 5-130 kbps on 2G, 0.4-1 Mbps on 3G and 2-5 Mbps on 4G/LTE. They use carrier aggregation of both LTE bands in the capital for the highest speeds.
Claro is the big rival of Movistar in Peru. It has more than 1/3 of all mobile customers and only a slightly lower coverage at lower prices.
4G/LTE has started in major cities and is available on all prepaid plans. Unlike its competitors, Claro uses the 1900 MHz (band 2) frequency for it, which is more accessible to many devices from out of the US. In 2016/7 it added the 700 MHz (band 28) in Lima and 38 more towns for LTE. In and around Lima they have added support for 2600 MHz (band 7) 4G+ is available using both bands.
Their LTE coverage is on par and partly surpasses that of Movistar, if you don't have a device that carries band 4. However, you should keep in mind when you are travelling overland between major cities many hours without any signal are common.
As in many other countries, the incumbent operator Movistar offers the best coverage, but at higher rates. Claro as challenger has a heavy marketing footprint all over the country, while Movistar is less visible. Despite that, where there is Claro, there is always Movistar too. Either next door (literally) or in the same Claro-colored small shop/street vendor.
This operator has launched commercial fixed-wireless broadband services via 5G technology, having received authorisation from the telecom ministry to use its existing 3.5GHz spectrum for the service earlier this year.
The Chilean market leader Entel bought Peruvian network Nextel in 2013 and changed its name to Entel in 2014. It's still building up its network and lacks the coverage of the big two providers, but can be reasonable if you stick to the cities. Please note however coverage is very limited in the Loreto Department (Amazonas region). There is no (zero) siginal when travelling by boat between Yurimaguas and Iquitos.
4G/LTE has started in 2014 in Lima on the 1700 MHz AWS (B4) frequency and spread out to more places. According to OpenSignal's country report compiled in 2019, it's the best 4G/LTE network in the country what speed is concerned and matches Movistar's coverage of 85% covered by 4G networks.
This operator as also launched a fixed-wireless broadband service utilising 5G technology on the 3.5GHz band. Both Entel and Claro, were granted permission by the Ministry of Transport and Communications (Ministerio de Transportes y Comunicaciones, MTC) to utilise its existing frequencies in the band to offer a fixed-wireless internet service using 5G New Radio (NR) technology. Entel’s 5G plan provides downlink speeds of up to 50Mbps for PEN150 (USD40.13) per month, plus an up-front fee of PEN1,499 for the modem and installation.
Bitel is the latest arrival in Peru. They are the Latin American branch of Vietnamese army-owned Viettel and started in 2014 with an own network in the country. It's in a rather limited area (see coverage map) on 900 MHz and 1900 MHz. The rather unusal 900 MHz spectrum is used for 3G, added by 1900 MHz. In 2016 Bitel launched its 4G/LTE network through 1,750 4G base stations, covering 500 population centres on the rather unusual band 8 (900 MHz). It has a wide 4G coverage in Peru now, but focuses on rural areas which are not covered by other operators. So it's only recommended if you go to these places. In an OpenSignal test in 2019 speeds were much lower than on the other three networks.
Back in 2018, Telefónica announced “Internet para todos” (“Internet for all”), a collaborative project to connect the unconnected in Latin America. The Initiative is aimed at connecting the more than 100 million people in Latin America with no internet access. Telefónica agreed collaboration with Facebook on key technological and commercial innovations and collaboration with multiple stakeholders: rural operators, technology firms and regulators.
Parallel Wireless have been deploying OpenRAN sites with them and even did a press release last year to say hundreds of sites have been deployed.
Last month Telefónica announced that 'Internet Para Todos' is two years old and has contributed to connecting more than 2 million Peruvians in rural areas with 4G internet. Internet para Todos expects to close 2021 with 13,000 communities with high-speed mobile internet access.
