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.
