Ecuador Spectrum Allocation Delayed Until 2020

Ecuador’s Minister for Telecommunications & Information Society, Andres Michelena Ayala, has confirmed that the sale of spectrum in the 700MHz, 1700MHz, 2.5GHz and 3.GHz frequency bands will not take place before 2020, reports TeleSemana. The government had originally intended to allocate 700MHz and 2.5GHz spectrum in November 2019 in an effort to increase 4G coverage from 50% to 80% by 2021, in line with the ‘Ecuador Digital’ strategy unveiled in May.

The minister highlighted that Ecuador is second only to Costa Rica in Latin America in terms of available spectrum, and that next year’s allocation would increase the amount in use from 26% to 68%. The government hopes the additional frequencies will enable 5G services to be launched commercially by 2022.—Tele Geography