At the ENACOM headquarters, located in the Monserrat neighborhood of the Autonomous City of Buenos Aires (CABA), the Minister of Economy of the Nation, Sergio Massa, accompanied by the head of the Entity, Claudio Ambrosini, announced the authorization of the spectrum in the range from 5925 to 7125 MHz (6 GHz Band) completely for free use (without a license) by the provider companies. The complete 6 GHz Band can coexist with the existing fixed link services, which allows maximizing the use of a national resource of all Argentines and all Argentines such as the spectrum.
This decision, strategic for Argentina, allows giving a boost to the knowledge economy, SMEs and sectors of the digital world that need to use a higher quality WIFI, which supports technological evolution and future developments, supported by the augmented reality, gaming, the metaverse, the Internet of Things (IoT) and 5G. In turn, it will make it possible for SMEs and cooperatives to extend their connectivity offer on the basis of state-of-the-art competitive services and to reach each school, each hospital, each community, the poor towns and neighborhoods in urban areas, suburban and remote.
During the event, the Minister of the Economy, Sergio Massa, highlighted the importance of this measure: “This is a decision closely linked to the economy because for Argentina, one of the five major economic players in the next 10 years, is the knowledge economy. For our country, the sale of services based on the enormous value and respect of its human capital, of the people, of the Argentines, for their training, for their work capacity, is one of the great powerhouses for generating exports”.
And he continued: “We aspire that, precisely, WiFi 6 allows competitiveness for regional economies, but also competitiveness for those who, due to talent and capacity, from different regions of the country can offer services to the world and, many times, compete in disadvantage by what we call latency”.
“The higher the level of WiFi capillarity, and in this sense WiFi 6 is full capillarity throughout the national territory, the higher the level of participation of our SME ecosystem and our individual developers, the higher the level of speed and volume in the speed, in the transfer of speed and volume of data in the home Internet, greater possibility of development of the Internet of Things (IoT), of the metaverse, of the capacity to provide economic services abroad, which is one of the great potential of the Argentine economy”, the minister concluded.
In turn, the president of ENACOM said: “This announcement shows that WiFi 6 technology will be available for universities, in large industrial factories and also at home, to have better WiFi quality and, of course, , higher speed. I thank all the companies that accompany us”.
Then, on behalf of the companies, Marina Bericua, director of Public, Corporate and Legal Affairs at Microsoft, stated: “Its authorization in the 6 GHz Band really democratizes access to services that have to do with social inclusion and the development. Education, health services, the possibility that all people in Argentina have access to the services provided by the State”.
This measure will, in turn, allow the deployment of training platforms for professional and youth training, with virtual reality solutions. In this way, Argentina will continue to grow in Software exports, as will the gaming industry, and professionals and companies will project themselves more internationally, in accordance with new digital technologies. The young people of the country need to prepare for the employment of the future and this determination constitutes a necessary condition for this to happen.
During the presentation of Massa and Ambrosini, the full members of the ENACOM Board of Directors were present: the vice president, Gustavo López; the directors appointed by the National Executive Power, Gonzalo Quilodrán and María Florencia Pacheco; the director proposed by the Bicameral Commission for the Promotion and Monitoring of Audiovisual Communication, Telecommunications Technologies and Digitization, Alejandro Gigena; the Chief of Staff of the Entity, Ariel Martínez; and the coordinator of Technical Affairs, Diego Leiva.
Likewise, the following participated in person: Juan Manuel Cheppi, Secretary of Knowledge Economy; Marina Bericua, Director of Public, Corporate and Legal Affairs at Microsoft; María Julia Díaz Ardaya, director of Public Policies for Meta; Marta Suárez, president of DSA; Sebastian Kaplan, Head of Public Policies for Connectivity SP Latam of Meta; Adrián De Grazia, director Americas Digital Sales & Argentina Country Manager of Intel; and Juan Oshiro, Cisco Argentina Engineering Manager.
For their part, they did it virtually: Micaela Sánchez Malcolm, Secretary of Technological Innovation of the Nation; Bill Davenport, senior director, Global Technology and Spectrum at Cisco; Chris Szymanski, product Marketing Director, Wireless Communication and Connectivity at Broadcom; Leonardo Giordano, Country Manager of Cisco Argentina; Lester García, director of Public Policies for LATAM Connectivity at Meta; Carlos Rebellon, Intel’s Director of Government Affairs Spanish Speaking LATAM; Héctor Marín, Senior Director, Government Affairs of Qualcomm; Cristobal Les Plaza, public Policy Manager MX Amazon; Mario de la Cruz Sarabia, Senior Director of Government Relations for Cisco Latin America; Maria Medrano, HPE Director of Government Relations; Rodrigo Silveira, Apple’s Compliance Manager; Google’s Nihar Jindal; Jennifer McCarthy, Federated Wireless; Marcelo Viggiano, Marketing Manager, Broadband and Video Latam at Broadcom.
This decision is in line with what has already been defined by nine countries in the Americas, which brings together a total of 78% of the continent’s population and 254 million households, and which may enable economic benefits for Argentina. On the other hand, there are more than 1,200 devices on the market that operate in this band (WIFI 6E), including personal computers, smartphones, access points and TV, and that can be put to use, since they do not require obtaining a license. but only the homologation of the equipment.
The national State, through ENACOM, seeks to maximize the exploitation of a renewable resource to achieve the greatest economic and social benefits demanded by the inhabitants and companies of the country, understanding high-quality connectivity as a key productivity tool that At the same time, it guarantees rights of access to health, education, employment and inclusion.
