New legislation has come into effect in Argentina aimed at opening up the telecom market to more competition and encouraging the development of converged services. Regulator Enacom said the decree was published in the official gazette, meaning that within six months it will call a tender to issue more mobile spectrum and try to attract new players in the market. The legislation also sets the terms for converting some existing spectrum used for broadcasting to wireless broadband and mobile services and lays the groundwork for a national interconnection framework in the mobile sector.
In addition, it opens up the cable TV market to telecom operators from 2018, and allows satellite TV operators to offer internet services. Enacom said this should encourage investment in expanding broadband networks. Other measures include enhanced protection for end-users from anti-competitive practices. Specifically, consumers will have the right to know the price of each service in a package and cannot be forced to take one service in order to receive another.
