Argentine media holding Grupo Uno plans to launch mobile services in Argentina. Grupo Uno is participating in a mobile spectrum tender launched by the Argentinean communications ministry (Secretaria de Comunicaciones de la Nacion). However, Grupo Uno would first have to fulfill regulations imposed by Argentina’s media law, which states that a media group company cannot own air TV and cable TV channels simultaneously.
Grupo Uno plans to provide the service via its Superfone unit, a subsidiary of cable and internet services provider Supercanal. The initial plan is to set up a company focused on the provision of mobile telephony services, local newspaper La Nacion reports, citing Grupo Uno CEO Daniel Vila.
The law also prohibits a company from having more than 10 licenses for the provision of broadcasting services, and Grupo Uno exceeds this limit. The Group has submitted a property readjustment plan to meet this requirement on the number of licenses held by a bidder, but this plan has not received final approval from the Federal Authority for Audiovisual Communication Services (Afsca).
Uno currently has around 600,000 cable TV and internet customers in various Argentinean provinces.
