Telecom Argentina's View of Autonomous Networks and the Road to Level 4

At FutureNet World 2026, Eduardo Panciera from Telecom Argentina gave a useful operator view of where autonomous networks are heading and, more importantly, what stands in the way of getting there.

The presentation was titled Autonomous Networks and AI: A Perfect Match, From Automation to Level 4 Autonomy. The main message was simple but important. Operators cannot keep managing future networks with the same operating model they use today. Automation helps, but automation alone is no longer enough. As networks become more complex, operators need to move towards real autonomy.

Telecom Argentina is an interesting company to hear this from. It is not just a mobile operator. It provides connectivity, IPTV, OTT services, B2B services and fintech services. It has also been rebranding products under the Personal brand, with the aim of giving each user a more personal and digital experience. Eduardo linked this ambition to TM Forum's Zero-X vision, where the goal is to provide zero wait, zero touch and zero trouble experiences for customers. TM Forum describes Zero-X in similar terms, focusing on zero wait, zero touch and zero trouble as guiding principles for future digital operations.

The problem is that simplicity for the customer usually means more complexity inside the network.

Telecom Argentina's view is that operators need self-X networks, cloud-based programmable infrastructure, AI-driven assurance, automated decision-making and APIs that expose network capabilities. In other words, the customer-facing experience may become simpler, but the operational layer behind it has to become much more intelligent.

This is particularly true as 5G networks expand. 5G enables more personalised services and more programmable capabilities, but it also brings additional operational complexity. Operators have to deal with multi-cloud environments, heterogeneous networks, rising costs and more demanding service expectations. Traditional automation can support some of this, but the network is becoming too complex for humans to remain involved in every design, decision and recovery process.

That is the gap between automation and autonomy.

In a normal network operations cycle, the operator defines targets and KPIs, observes the network, identifies deviations, analyses what is happening, designs possible solutions, decides which one to apply and executes the action. Today, parts of that cycle are already automated. Execution is often automated. Observability and alarm handling are increasingly automated. But solution design and decision-making still often sit with human teams. Eduardo's point was that autonomy requires these cognitive steps to move into the system itself.

This is why Level 4 matters.

TM Forum classifies Autonomous Network levels from Level 0 to Level 5, ranging from manual management to fully autonomous networks. Its Autonomous Networks Mission describes Level 4 as introducing decision-making based on intent-driven, predictive analysis and closed-loop management of service-driven and customer experience-driven networks, supported by AI modelling and continuous learning.

In practical terms, Level 4 is where autonomous networks stop being a future vision and become an execution problem. TM Forum made a similar point in June 2026, saying that Level 4 is where autonomous networks move from ambition into an industry execution challenge.

Level 5 remains the longer-term aspiration. It implies full autonomy across a much wider range of domains and scenarios. Level 4 is the more immediate challenge because it requires operators to trust the system to make decisions in defined areas, under defined policies, using reliable data and closed-loop control.

AI is central to that transition, but Telecom Argentina's message was not simply that AI can be added to existing operations.

Eduardo described a layered autonomous network architecture, aligned with TM Forum thinking, with business, service and resource layers. The resource layer includes familiar network domains such as mobile core, RAN and transport. Intents flow down from higher layers, while reports and feedback flow up. Each domain can have its own closed loop, and there can also be closed loops between layers.

This is an important distinction. Autonomous networks are not just about automating individual tasks. They are about connecting business intent, service requirements and resource behaviour through closed-loop systems.

The AI components in this architecture can be split into copilots and agents.

A copilot is triggered by a human. It can help with suggestions, data analysis, troubleshooting and natural language interaction. It supports the human operator.

An agent goes further. It observes, analyses and decides without direct human intervention. This is where the shift towards autonomy starts to become real.

The agent model described in the presentation is also worth noting. Agents receive intent from humans or from other agents. They observe the network environment using logs, KPIs and alarms. They use knowledge and memory to understand context. Short-term memory provides the current situation, while long-term memory captures past experience, domain knowledge, design documents and technology information.

Agents can work in two ways. They can be reactive, responding to real-time events. They can also be proactive, anticipating problems or recommending network parameter optimisation before an issue becomes visible to the customer. In practice, operators will need both. Reactive autonomy helps with fault handling. Proactive autonomy is where networks start to become self-optimising and, eventually, self-evolving.

However, one agent is not enough.

Telecom Argentina's view is that operators will need a network of agents distributed across business, service and resource layers. These agents will need to collaborate, negotiate and communicate with each other. That brings a new challenge. If an operator has hundreds or thousands of agents working across domains, then it also needs a governance framework for those agents.

Eduardo highlighted several elements of this governance framework: registry, identity, guardrails, orchestration, observability and a shared data model. Agents must be able to discover each other. They must be authenticated. They must have rules and boundaries. Their workflows must be orchestrated. Their actions must be observable. Most importantly, they must all understand the network in the same way.

That final point may be the most important part of the presentation.

Telecom Argentina's argument is that operators cannot just place AI on top of the way networks are operated today and expect Level 4 autonomy to emerge.

Today, many telecom operations still work from the "how". Teams have runbooks and documents that describe how to configure the network, how to configure assurance and how to update inventory. Different teams perform different steps. The result is often fragmented data. The real network configuration may not match the inventory. The topology used by assurance systems may not match the live network. Different systems can hold different versions of reality.

In that environment, AI may improve some tasks, but it will not be reliable enough for true autonomy. Agents making decisions on top of poor or inconsistent data will make poor or inconsistent decisions.

This is why trusted data is central to autonomous networks.

Telecom Argentina's proposed shift is to move from operating from the "how" to operating from the "what". Instead of starting with runbooks and configuration steps, the operator starts with intent. What service should be delivered? What resources does it require? What SLA must it meet? What assurance should be associated with it? This information should be captured through a catalogue and a source of truth, then orchestrated across resources, inventory and assurance.

This is a different operating model.

It means that autonomy is not just about AI tools. It is about trusted data models, service catalogues, intent-based operations, orchestration and closed-loop assurance. The agents only become useful when they operate on a consistent representation of the network and the services running over it.

That also explains why Level 4 is so difficult. The technology is only one part of the journey.

Telecom Argentina described three avenues for reaching Level 4. The first is technology, moving from traditional automation to programmable networks and then to agentic AI. The second is process, because existing operating processes need to change if agents are to be used safely and effectively. The third, and perhaps most difficult, is culture. Operators have to move from thinking primarily in terms of networks to thinking in terms of data models and digital operations.

This is a useful message for the wider industry.

Many operators are now talking about autonomous networks, AI-native operations and agentic AI. The risk is that these terms become marketing labels attached to existing automation platforms. Telecom Argentina's presentation was more grounded. It made clear that autonomy requires a much deeper change in how the operator understands, models and governs its network.

For Operator Watch readers, this is also a reminder that the next phase of operator transformation will not only be about 5G coverage, fibre expansion, cloud migration or customer apps. It will also be about the operating model underneath all of that.

An operator that wants to deliver personalised digital services at scale cannot keep relying on fragmented inventories, disconnected assurance systems and manual decision-making. It needs trusted data, programmable infrastructure, intent-based orchestration and closed loops that can act safely within defined boundaries.

AI can help, but AI is not the starting point. The starting point is a trusted model of the network and the services running over it.

That may be the most important lesson from Telecom Argentina's FutureNet World presentation. Level 4 autonomy is not just a technology milestone. It is a test of whether operators can redesign their operations around trusted data, closed-loop control and governed AI agents.

Level 5 may still be aspirational, but Level 4 is already becoming the practical battleground.

The FutureNet World 2026 presentation by Eduardo Panciera is embedded below:

Related Posts: 

• Operator Watch Blog: Argentina's Mobile Market at a Turning Point 

Argentina's Mobile Market at a Turning Point

Argentina has long been one of Latin America's more unusual mobile markets. While many countries in the region have been dominated by one or two large operators, Argentina maintained a durable three-player structure, with Personal, Claro and Movistar competing nationally across mobile coverage, network quality, pricing and increasingly converged services.

According to Argentina's competition authority, before the recent market restructuring Claro had 41.8% of the national mobile market, Personal had 33.8% and Movistar had 24.4%. The split was not perfectly equal, but it ensured three nationwide network operators with sufficient scale to compete. That structure is now being reshaped.

In February 2025, Telecom Argentina acquired almost all of Telefónica Móviles Argentina, the company behind the Movistar brand, for US$1.245 billion. The transaction brought Personal and Movistar under the same ownership and immediately raised concerns about excessive market concentration. Without remedies, the competition authority calculated that Argentina would effectively be reduced to two independent mobile network operators, with the combined Telecom operation holding around 58% of the market and Claro the remaining 42%.

After more than a year of regulatory and political uncertainty, the most important development came in June 2026.

Argentina's Tribunal de Defensa de la Competencia made approval of the transaction conditional on a substantial restructuring. Telecom must transfer six million active mobile customers to an independent acquirer, including four million in the Buenos Aires metropolitan area and another two million elsewhere in the country. The transfer must be accompanied by sufficient spectrum to support a viable mobile service. The new competitor will also be able to access network sharing, roaming, co-location and other infrastructure arrangements while building its own network. The divestment must be completed within 18 months.

This means that the defining question for Argentina's mobile market is no longer simply whether Personal, Claro or Movistar has the best network.

It is who will emerge as the country's third major mobile operator.

The regulatory intervention is particularly interesting because it is not simply requiring Telecom to return spectrum or sell a small collection of assets. The objective is to preserve three competitive nationwide mobile operators by transferring a substantial customer base together with the spectrum and access arrangements required to support it.

For years, Argentina had three established mobile network operators. Telecom's acquisition of Telefónica threatened to turn that into a duopoly. The regulator is now attempting to create the conditions for a third strong competitor to emerge from the restructuring.

This change comes at an important point in the evolution of Argentina's mobile networks.

According to GSMA Intelligence data published by DataReportal, Argentina had 66.6 million cellular mobile connections at the end of 2025, an increase of 4.0 million, or 6.4%, compared with the end of 2024. This was equivalent to 145% of the population, reflecting the fact that many people and organisations use more than one connection. Around 98.4% of mobile connections were classified as mobile broadband connections using 3G, 4G or 5G networks.

LTE remains the workhorse of the Argentine mobile market, but the 5G story has been developing for several years.

Personal switched on Argentina's first 5G network in February 2021, initially activating ten sites in Buenos Aires and Rosario. These early deployments used Dynamic Spectrum Sharing, or DSS, allowing 4G and 5G to share existing spectrum. By the end of 2022, Personal had 143 active 5G sites and was gaining operational experience while waiting for the spectrum required for a larger-scale deployment.

The real turning point came in October 2023, when Argentina auctioned 250 MHz of spectrum in the 3.5 GHz range. Claro and Telecom each acquired 100 MHz, while Telefónica acquired 50 MHz. The auction generated more than US$875 million and gave the operators access to dedicated mid-band spectrum for more meaningful 5G deployments.

This distinction is important. Argentina was not particularly late to put 5G on air, but the first deployments were limited and largely based on DSS. The move from early 5G using existing spectrum to dedicated 3.5 GHz networks only accelerated after the 2023 auction.

Today, Personal, Claro and Movistar all offer commercial 5G services in major urban centres including Buenos Aires, Córdoba, Rosario and Mendoza.

However, this should still be viewed as the beginning rather than the end of deployment.

Although commercial 5G services are now available in Argentina's largest cities, LTE continues to account for the majority of mobile connections and traffic, with 5G adoption still in its early stages.

For most subscribers, 5G currently represents an incremental improvement in speed rather than a transformational change in service.

Claro entered Argentina as part of América Móvil's wider Latin American expansion and, before the recent restructuring, had grown into the country's largest mobile operator by market share.

The operator acquired a full 100 MHz block of 3.5 GHz spectrum in the 2023 auction and subsequently selected Nokia for a nationwide 5G deployment. The initial phase targeted Argentina's largest cities, using Massive MIMO and other elements from Nokia's AirScale portfolio. The deployment was positioned not only around faster consumer mobile broadband but also around future enterprise opportunities in sectors including manufacturing and oil and gas.

Claro's position has changed significantly from its earlier image as primarily the aggressive pricing challenger. It now combines the largest mobile market share with a significant spectrum holding and a major 5G investment programme.

In the old three-player structure, Claro could compete against Personal and Movistar separately. Following Telecom's acquisition, it briefly faced the prospect of competing against a much larger combined rival. The June 2026 remedies are therefore highly significant for Claro as well as for the future third operator.

Movistar is at the centre of this restructuring. Telefónica had been a major part of Argentina's telecommunications sector for decades, investing heavily in 3G, LTE, fibre and other services. It also acquired 50 MHz of 3.5 GHz spectrum during the 2023 auction.

However, Telefónica had been reducing its exposure to several Latin American markets. On 24 February 2025, Telecom Argentina acquired 99.999625% of Telefónica Móviles Argentina for US$1.245 billion. By the end of 2025, the acquired business still had approximately 19.1 million mobile subscribers, including M2M connections.

The future of those customers is now one of the biggest questions in the Argentine telecoms market.

Six million active mobile customers must be transferred to an independent acquirer. They will not simply represent a collection of disconnected assets. The regulatory package includes customer contracts, numbering, sufficient spectrum and transitional access to infrastructure. The objective is to give the acquiring operator enough scale to compete rather than creating a weak third player that exists only on paper.

The remedies extend beyond mobile. Telecom must also divest 211,400 fixed broadband customers across 28 local markets where the combined operation would create excessive concentration. In Buenos Aires, the transfer of Telefónica's FTTH network is mandatory.

Personal, the consumer brand of Telecom Argentina, entered 2026 from a position of considerable strength.

At the end of 2025, Telecom reported approximately 19.9 million Personal mobile subscribers in Argentina, excluding the acquired Telefónica business. The subscriber base had declined by 7.8% during the year, largely because inactive prepaid lines with no recorded traffic were disconnected. Around 60% of the remaining customer base was prepaid and 40% postpaid, while mobile ARPU increased by 15.8% in real terms.

Personal has developed into a fully converged communications brand combining mobile, fixed broadband, television, streaming and digital services. Its mobile network has also been a central part of Telecom's technology strategy.

After pioneering Argentina's first DSS-based 5G deployment, Telecom acquired 100 MHz of dedicated 3.5 GHz spectrum in 2023. The company reported 265 5G sites across major cities by the end of 2024 and continued expanding the network during 2025. Personal was subsequently recognised by Ookla as having Argentina's fastest 5G mobile network during 2025, alongside continued recognition for overall mobile network performance.

The challenge for Personal is now much bigger than network performance.

Telecom owns the former Telefónica Argentina business, but regulatory approval requires it to give up six million mobile customers and the spectrum needed to support them. The company must therefore integrate a major acquisition while simultaneously implementing one of the most substantial mobile market remedies seen in the region.

For Operator Watch readers, however, the mobile element is the most intriguing.

• Who will acquire six million customers?
• How much and which spectrum will ultimately accompany them?
• Can the acquiring company build a nationwide network and commercial operation capable of competing with Claro and Personal?
• And how quickly can it move from transitional access arrangements to a sustainable network of its own?

The outcome could reshape not only market shares but also future network investment. A new or strengthened third player could inherit millions of customers from day one, but it would still need to develop its own retail strategy, network footprint, spectrum roadmap, distribution channels and brand proposition.

At the same time, Argentina's operators continue to face economic conditions that make network investment particularly challenging. Telecom equipment and many network inputs are priced in US dollars, while most customer revenues are generated in Argentine pesos. Inflation, currency volatility and access to international financing have all complicated long-term capital planning. Telecom itself identifies inflation, devaluation, exchange-rate risk and the cost of financing capital expenditure among the major risks affecting its operations.

Despite these pressures, investment has continued.

Operators have expanded LTE capacity, fibre backhaul and 5G infrastructure. Personal and Claro each acquired 100 MHz of 3.5 GHz spectrum, while Telefónica acquired 50 MHz before its sale to Telecom. The next phase will be less about simply switching on more 5G sites and more about turning those networks into commercially sustainable platforms.

For consumers, 5G will continue to improve speed and capacity as dedicated mid-band coverage expands. LTE, however, is likely to remain critical for nationwide coverage and the majority of connections for some time.

For operators, the more difficult questions will be around monetisation. These include encouraging migration from prepaid to higher-value contracts, increasing the value of converged mobile and fixed propositions, developing enterprise 5G services and using better network performance to improve customer retention rather than simply competing on price.

Argentina therefore enters the second half of 2026 with two major transitions happening at the same time.

The first is technological, as the market moves from LTE and early DSS-based 5G towards broader use of dedicated 3.5 GHz networks.

The second is structural, as a market that spent years with three established national operators tries to preserve three-way competition after one of those operators was acquired by another.

The regulatory decision does not answer all the questions. In many ways, it creates new ones.

The identity of the buyer of the six million customers will be critical. So will the exact spectrum package, the ability of the new competitor to build its own network and the willingness of investors to finance another nationwide mobile operation.

For years, Argentina's mobile market was defined by competition between Personal, Claro and Movistar.

The next chapter may be defined by Personal, Claro and a third operator that does not yet exist in its final form.

That could make Argentina one of the most interesting mobile markets to watch in Latin America over the next few years.