BUENOS AIRES (Reuters) – Argentina’s government said on Wednesday that it will launch a 5G spectrum auction on Oct. 24 in a bid to raise some $1.05 billion.
The announcement comes as the government is seeking foreign currency to deal with an economic crisis, with the country’s peso currency in free fall and the central bank’s reserves in short supply.
Three provider companies have already qualified as bidders for operating the frequency bands, which range from 3,300 MHz to 3,600 MHz.
“In this offer, a total of 300 MHz will be submitted to the auction procedure, in three lots of 100 MHz each,” a statement from Argentina’s economy ministry said.
The government highlighted that the deployment of 5G constitutes a medium- and long-term state policy, which requires collaboration between the public and private sectors to upgrade network infrastructure.
(Reporting by Lucila Sigal; Writing by Brendan O’Boyle; Editing by Jonathan Oatis)
