AT&T launches 5G in Mexico City, Guadalajara and Monterrey

AT&T launched limited 5G services in Mexico in December last year

AT&T Mexico announced its 5G network has been launched in Mexico City, Guadalajara and Monterrey.

The telco said it expects its 5G network infrastructure to reach 25 new cities across Mexico before the end of this year.

AT&T Mexico users will be able to access 5G through AT&T Ármalo, a personalized experience which will allow users to build their own 5G plan. Additionally, businesses will be able to take advantage of 5G through AT&T Business, the company said.

The carrier had initially launched 5G services in Mexico in December last year using spectrum in the 2.5 GHz band.

The initial coverage of AT&T’s 5G network was limited to the Cuauhtémoc and the Napoles districts in Mexico City.

With the aim of contributing to the development of a 5G ecosystem that accelerates the use cases that require this new mobile technology, AT&T Mexico has already opened a 5G Innovation Laboratory, a space designed to test and validate 5G use cases with collaborators, industry and customers.

AT&T Mexico also said it will work in collaboration with industry, government, universities, startups and large corporations, in the realization of prototypes that use 5G technology to improve business models.

Earlier this week, Mexican operator Movistar, owned by Spanish telecommunications company Telefonica, said it was considering a launch of 5G in Mexico via a network sharing agreement with AT&T.

Camilo Aya, CEO of Telefónica Movistar México, highlighted that one of the advantages of sharing infrastructure with AT&T was that once the latter company launched these services, Telefónica will be able to do so simultaneously.

“We are starting our plan to do tests and start the deployment as well. We are going to use the coverage that AT&T uses, as they launch in these cities we will launch the service,” Aya said. The executive also said that the telco is in process to evaluate 5G plans, market conditions and the technological infrastructure necessary to support the network in Mexico.

Mexican telecom group America Movil expects to double the number of 5G sites in Mexico by the end of the year, America Movil’s CEO Daniel Hajj recently said during a conference call with investors.

Hajj also said that the telco will gradually increase its 5G capex once users migrate from 3G and 4G networks to 5G. “As we can move more customers from 4G to 5G or 3G to 5G then the capex should be more in 5G because we have more customers there and take out some capex on 4G to put it in 5G (…) If we grow faster, than we put more on 5G, if we grow at slower pace we are going to put more on 4G,” he added.

In February, America Movil launched 5G services in 18 of Mexico’s largest cities, reaching more than 48 million people.

The company, which operates in the mobile telephony segment through the Telcel brand, initially launched 5G in Mexico City, Monterrey, Guadalajara, Tijuana and Puebla, among other cities.

Earlier this year, Mexican telecommunications regulator IFT had confirmed that the 5G spectrum auction for mobile services will take place during 2022.