The new telecommunications network will allow connecting hundred times more devices and this will help the automotive industry to “accelerate its digitization to improve the user experience and to make manufacturing and automation processes more efficient,” says the SER document. Even, he adds, it will help to “precisely determine the availability of the vehicle’s battery to the nearest charging stations and collect data from different charging places to support distributors in planning the expansion of networks to guarantee the demand for electric vehicles.” ”.
The Secretariat shows its interest in deploying the suitable spectrum for 5G in the Bajío area in order to create the first industrial corridor with the new technologygiven its industrial-automotive vocation and hub of the most relevant data centers in Latin America. But there is still a high cost of the radio spectrum and the lack of homologation of permits for the deployment of infrastructure.
Leaving the collection behind
The document recognizes that the State has maintained a collection perspective for a long time regarding the issue of the radioelectric spectrum; that is, as an income generator and not as a digital development tool and from the same industries, whose situation has resulted in less interest in participating in band tenders by companies in the sector.
For some of the biggest players in the industry, this has translated into the return of the spectrum that they already had In December of last year AT&T returned, for the second time, radio spectrum due to the high costs for its use and rights, adding to telephone who since 2019 completely renounced his network to streamline his operation.
Telecommunications operators in Mexico such as AT&T and Telcel pay up to 89% more of the total cost of the bands and the right to the radioelectric spectrum, while other nations such as Germany, Italy, Greece, the Netherlands and others from Continental Europe (such as Switzerland, Sweden, Austria and Denmark) only cover 5% of the total cost to access the bands , according to the consultancy The Ciu.
The SRE has proposed reforming the Federal Rights Law to auction spectrum at a more competitive price, and that, in return, the operators prioritize the provision of services in rural and disconnected areas. In addition, it proposes that the State invest a percentage of the collection of the spectrum in the telecommunications sector.
For Michel Hernández Tafoya, president of Observatel, it is feasible for the government, through the SRE, to begin to realize the relevance of connectivity for the digitization of society and of the industries themselves, and even call for eliminate the optics of collecting the spectrum that both the industry and the Federal Institute of Telecommunications itself have demanded.
“We are arriving late to this discussion of lowering the cost of spectrum where we have already seen that several companies have returned bands but we still have time to do it differently with the new technology that will help the industries,” Hernández explains.
Homologate deployment permits
Another obstacle to implementing 5G in the country is the lack of homologation of permits to deploy infrastructure and that for the new technology it will require 10 times more than what is currently available.
The three levels of government are empowered to grant permissions collaboratively but in “practice it is different”, since each level of government issues permits in accordance with its rules, causing companies to delay or prevent the installation of networks.
The document indicates that, to avoid these obstacles, it has been recommended that the Federal Government have greater weight in decision-making for deployment at the local level, reducing the bureaucratic burden of these processes and reaching a homologation.
“The approval of the deployment of infrastructure is not exclusive to Mexico, it is an almost global problem. That is why it makes sense that the federal government is the one to establish deployment rules, since it is the one that has the most direct contact with the rest of the governments (state and municipal)”, says Hernández.
As industries begin to realize the possibilities that 5G will offer to streamline their operations and generate savings, as the automotive sector has already done, they will begin to build a comprehensive connectivity policyone that is still lacking in the telecommunications sector, says the director of observatel.