Convergencia Research, Consultoría especializada en Latinoamérica y Caribe
Wednesday, May 22, 2019

Antel to invest US$ 2 million in its pioneering 5G experience during 2019

The president of the Uruguayan state operator, Andrés Tolosa, gave an interview to Convergencialatina just over a month after the launch of 5G. He recalled the milestone of April 9 last as "a first step in the technological evolution of 5G, with restricted operations to make experience and generate know-how in our technicians. It is a continuum that must be done as an operator. And it's better to start as soon as possible, not wait, because that time will be a problem for future learning. "

Antel these days awaits the arrival of the first terminals for fixed wireless services over 5G. After the initial launch in the spa town of La Barra (department of Maldonado) and in the municipality of Nueva Palmira (department of Colonia), officials expect that Montevideo and certain areas of Canelones to remain on the road map of the next mobile generation. Andrés Tolosa, president of the state company, foresees that by the end of 2019 there will be 1,000 customers over 5G, mostly receiving fixed wireless services (the question of suitable mobile devices is still an unknown).

In a conversation with Convergencialatina, the executive highlighted the importance of quickly submerging in 5G and mentioned as best business opportunity: 4.0 industry, Industrial IoT, automation and robotization.

Convergencialatina (CL): What is your assessment of Antel's pioneering experience a little over a month after launch?

Andrés Tolosa (AT): The pilots are good, but they are technicians' tests. We wanted the network to be commercial and the terminals to be working. We estimate that in the coming days the first fixed terminals will arrive, brought by Nokia. We will destine them to some clients and companies for fixed wireless services. The idea is to make the experience of the whole connection process, analyze the behavior of the network, traffic, and expand coverage.

5G will help us in a combined way, allowing fixed and mobile uses in non-wired areas. These are areas where we currently provide services with LTE, and this would be an improvement. We seek that suburban customers have wireless services with the same quality as in an area with fiber optics. This is the first step of technological evolution of 5G, in areas without wiring. The business case is to replace 4G in the future. But for that you have to carry out a technological evolution, because the market requires it and the applications too.

Now we are with restricted operations, making experience, generating know-how in our technicians. It is a continuum that must be done as an operator. And start as soon as possible, we do not want to wait, because that time will be a problem for future learning. The areas that will gain most momentum from the hand of 5G are Industrial Internet (IIoT), industry 4.0, automation, robotization. 5G will help put several nodes in the industry, provide security and reliability, and connects all automations.

CL: What investment did Antel dedicate to launch 5G?

AT: We estimate that the investment in the new technology throughout 2019 will amount to US$ 2 million. It is less than 10% of what we allocate annually to the mobile network, around US$ 20 million (on a total investment of US$ 120 million). Obviously 5G will take more importance within our investments in the future.

A big advantage is that Antel spent a lot of money on FTTH before. A problem that is seen in the deployments of 5G is the requirement of investment in fiber to reach each node. Antel has already traveled that road, with US $ 700 million already contributed, which today also serves for 5G. We are not forced to make these investments in fiber, but we must only take one step of evolution of the cellular network.

CL: How do you combine this expansion with LTE?

AT: 5G is added to what we have and will have its development process to eventually replace LTE. Today we have an LTE coverage of 90% of the population and 50% of the territory. Missing routes and certain populations. Out of a total of 2.9 million mobile users, 70% corresponds to LTE. And we know that 85% of the time our LTE clients use the 4G network.

We believe that the client will require a greater volume of GB and improvements in the service. In field tests of 5G we achieved speeds of over 100 Mbps, well above LTE, which reaches 30 Mbps.

CL: What place does IoT occupy in Antel's 5G route map?

AT: IoT is another reason to start fast with 5G. Although today this technology is not required for IoT services -we use LTE and Narrow-Band IoT, among others-, we visualize that, with the eventual massification of IoT, the 5G network will allow more users to connect to the same radio base, in front of to what today 4G allows. It multiplies by ten or more the number of services that consume connectivity, even if there is no traffic. With the massification of 5G and IoT, one will need the other.

We work with IoT in different verticals, and transport is the one that moves the most. With the Ministry of Transportation, we agreed to use Antel's IoT platform for the compulsory monitoring of the truck fleet. It will be used for connectivity, storage and reports. In IoT, it is essential that there is an ecosystem that is as integrated as possible and unique. So that the different actors involved use the same basic infrastructure, to lower costs and exchange common data. Antel seeks to give all State actors an IoT platform to which different stakeholders become "hooked on".

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