By Eliana Raszewski
BUENOS AIRES, March 16 (Reuters) - Argentina is preparing toauction 90 megahertz of 4G spectrum to mobile telephone andinternet companies in a process that has already attractedinterest from Telecom Argentina SA, Telefonica SA and Claro, agovernment source told Reuters.
The plans come as business-friendly President Mauricio Macriseeks to attract investment to the telecoms sector to boostcompetition and improve connectivity in the South Americancountry. Since taking office in 2015, he has pushed a change tolaws allowing companies to offer multiple telecoms services.
The auction could bring in $800 million in governmentrevenue, the source said. It is expected to consist of 60megahertz that telecom company Arlink received but laterreturned, and 30 megahertz held by state telecoms company Arsat.
A spokesman for Argentina's Modernization Ministry toldReuters there would need to be a change to the law to allow thegovernment to auction off the spectrum currently held by Arsat.That could occur around mid-year, either through a law or apresidential decree, the spokesman said.
Telecom, which recently merged with Argentina'slargest cable television provider Cablevision SA, said inJanuary it would invest $5 billion through 2020 to expand andimprove its connectivity infrastructure and communicationsservice.
"We view a government spectrum auction as good andnecessary, keeping in mind the huge growth in the use of mobiledata, with permanent connectivity demand from users," Telecomsaid in a statement to Reuters.
The merged company must return 80 megahertz of spectrum tothe state given that it now exceeds the 140 megahertz limit fora single operator. But the government plans to raise that cap,meaning Telecom would be able to participate in the auction.
Spain's Telefonica SA, the other major player inArgentina's telecoms market which operates through the mobilephone service brand Movistar, plans to invest close to $2billion in the country through 2019. Telefonica said in astatement Movistar would be interested in "an eventual auction."
Claro, owned by Mexican company America Movilplans to invest some $400 million per year through 2020 toimprove service to the 21 million customers it has in Argentina.
"Claro has interest in growing and developing the networksthat benefit service to its customers, be it through deploymentor acquisition of spectrum," the company told Reuters in astatement.(Reporting by Eliana RaszewskiWriting by Luc CohenEditing by Susan Thomas)
