Spectrum tender modified to create industrial Internet networks

For the first time, the conditions of the radio spectrum tender carried out by the newly created Telecommunications Regulatory Commission (CRT) will be modified so that companies that make up the industrial sector can have their own Internet network, Marisol Nava León, general director of spectrum tenders of the organization, highlighted in an interview.

The intention is for the operators that win the tender to grant local or internal networks to companies in the automotive, manufacturing, mining, logistics and health sectors (hospitals), which will allow operational and energy efficiency, as well as cost reduction.

“The service we are proposing is industrial networks. The bands there are available, they appeared in the annual program for the use and exploitation of frequency bands and can be allocated to these new uses,” he commented at the CRT office, where until a few months ago the Federal Telecommunications Institute (IFT) operated.

The bands available for these new uses are 2.3 and 3.5 gigahertz.

“What we are going to do is modify the bidding conditions to see how they can better satisfy the real use needs, how we are going to divide the spectrum, precisely into blocks, coverage, etc.,” he added.

New operators

Nava proposed the generation of a telecommunications market where there are more spectrum operators, which he describes as an invisible resource with different channels, which is used to communicate.

In turn, he detailed the current participation of more than 1,200 small operators, and the incentives for more participants, such as reducing the payment of rights in exchange for setting up infrastructure in underserved regions, as well as paying only for the part of the spectrum that is going to be used and not for a larger one that will be untapped.

“We are reviewing the issue of the law that provides for discounts in the payment of duties. We are developing those criteria, guidelines and we are going to seek to incorporate the elements that can really help reduce these disbursements,” he said.

He clarified that the concessionaires are going to pay part of the benefit with coverage, as this will allow them to have a larger user base and invest in their network and have better and greater connectivity.

“I envision a (telecommunications) market where there are more participants who have the necessary resources to operate, with more elements to provide quality services, strengthening those competitors at the local and regional level.”

He assured that although the objective is for a greater number of inhabitants to be able to communicate through the Internet and mobile telephony, it is first necessary to evaluate the demand for frequencies in the spectrum.

“We are going step by step knowing the needs very well, we do not want to make mistakes in that sense of going with something that does not go and respond to anything out there.”

He explained that through a deployment of infrastructure, as a resource, the radio spectrum can be used in channels to link different devices and transmit data, which helps people use cell phones, the Internet and the radio.

Currently, some spectrum bands are allocated for different services. Yesterday the CRT held a dialogue table for industrial networks.