AT&T Mexico will not acquire spectrum for 5G technology auctioned by the Federal Telecommunications Institute (IFT) due to its high cost, stated Mónica Aspe, CEO of the company.
"Do we want spectrum? Of course. Will we buy spectrum under the current conditions? No," Aspe mentioned during Mobile 360 Latam.
Currently, in absolute terms, the government collects less than it did for spectrum a few years ago because it is so expensive that the company then does not buy it, the CEO commented.
Regarding the spectrum auction scheme that the Mexican regulator proposes for the process to be carried out this year, Aspe commented that breaking it into a thousand tiny pieces creates technical problems.
"The download speed drops by about 25% for customers adjacent to where the industrial private network is made. And what happens to the operator's numbers? They lose the future flow of industrial applications."
However, the CEO of AT&T Mexico is confident that with the change of administration, business models will be reconsidered.
"We have to rethink how we are doing things because we are not advancing to the need we would like. We want to invest, we are here, we came to be here in the long term. Let's make it possible," Aspe highlighted.
Furthermore, the CEO mentioned that we are living in a time of enormous challenges and "clearly a challenge of sustainability for the future, the current model does not work for the future of telecommunications."
There is a demand for capabilities over the networks, investment needs, however, the ARPU's and market prices are not enough to cover the costs and investments.
"Therefore, this model has to fundamentally change because the networks are going to be there, the complete digital economy, the complete digital society. With these networks and our mechanisms, the financing model of these networks that we have today does not work for the future, and that is a global issue."