3.5GHz spectrum: The Driving Force Behind 5G Experience in LATAM

Rupert Bapty, Robert Wyrzykowski, Pierce Snyder

The rollout of 5G across Latin America is advancing, but the pace and impact vary widely from market to market. The region is diverse in terms of 5G spectrum assignments and 5G rollouts — ranging from fully 5G standalone deployments to countries still reliant on 4G or 3G connectivity.

In this analysis, published in partnership with the GSMA Spectrum Programme, Opensignal examines how mobile spectrum assignments shape mobile network experience in Latin America. We focus on the average bandwidth used for 4G and 5G connections and how this impacts download speeds, and the uplift that 5G provides, as well as how the overall experience in LATAM 5G markets compares to their peers that have yet to launch 5G. Additionally, we examine how different spectrum ranges can affect the 5G landscape.

Key findings:

• Higher spectrum bandwidth correlates with faster speed. Both 4G and 5G Download Speed have a strong positive correlation with average spectrum bandwidth used per connection. Brazil leads the region with the fastest average download speeds, due to the highest average spectrum usage per 4G connection and the second highest per 5G connection.
• 5G provides a significant boost over 4G. On average, Colombia’s 5G Download Speed is over 11 times faster than its 4G Download Speed, with most analyzed LATAM markets showing uplifts of over nine times.
• 3.5GHz spectrum drives speed advantages. In LATAM, 3.5GHz is the most deployed band for 5G. Out of the analyzed countries, only Puerto Rico does not make use of this band, instead favoring lower bands for broader coverage in 5G at the expense of speeds.

• 5G markets provide a better overall user experience. Overall experience in 5G LATAM markets tends to be better than in non-5G markets, with Download Speed Experience and Video Experience showing the strongest correlation.

   

In Opensignal’s previous analyses, we found that greater quantities of spectrum capacity tend to improve the 4G and 5G experience. This pattern was observed not only in the Asia Pacific region but also across OECD countries.

The correlation between average 4G spectrum bandwidth per connection and 4G Download Speed is strong, with an R-squared of 0.66. This relationship highlights that readily available mobile spectrum is one of the critical components of a seamless mobile network experience. In Brazil, for instance, 4G connections use, on average, nearly 35MHz of bandwidth, which results in the highest 4G Download Speed in the analyzed group, clocking in at 38.2Mbps — almost 10% more than that seen in Mexico, and around twice as much as in Paraguay or Venezuela.

Similarly to 4G connections, 5G Download Speed increases almost linearly with the average amount of bandwidth used. Our users in Brazil and Uruguay benefit from the highest amount of 5G spectrum bandwidth, which translates to a higher 5G Download Speed. Peru and Puerto Rico, on the other hand, due to lower bandwidth availability in mid-bands, score lower for 5G Download Speed.

While the correlations between the average 4G or 5G spectrum bandwidth per connection and 4G and 5G Download Speed achieved seem nearly linear for LATAM, other components also contribute to the mobile network experience, such as network congestion, infrastructure quality, backhaul capacity, availability of 5G devices, geography, level of urbanization and climate, along with capacity management and optimization techniques.

When 5G was first introduced, one of its main selling points was the promise of incredible speeds. Opensignal data confirms that there are, in fact, uplifts in speed and 5G networks do indeed deliver on this promise. Comparing the 4G to 5G uplift for download speeds across Latin American markets, Colombia leads the pack, followed by Brazil — as our users in both markets see around 11 times faster speeds on 5G than on 4G. Colombia is one of the newest 5G markets in Latin America, having launched commercial services in early 2024. This means that its 5G networks are  lightly loaded, allowing them to achieve relatively quick average download speeds. At the same time, congestion on Colombia’s 4G networks is high, leading to lower 4G speeds. However, deployment of 5G networks can lead to transferring some data traffic over to the latest generation. As a result, this reduces congestion on the legacy 4G networks, helping to increase speeds for users who haven’t migrated to the latest technology yet.

Latin America’s 5G landscape

The 5G rollout across Latin America varies significantly in terms of timelines and spectrum assignment. For example, Uruguay was the first market to deploy 5G in the region commercially in 2019, although on a very limited scale, only available to businesses. Other markets soon followed with their own 5G network deployments, and several others plan to roll out services in the coming years.

Mobile Network Operators (MNOs) across Latin American markets have predominantly deployed 5G services using 5G non-standalone access (NSA) technology, which combines existing 4G core infrastructure with a 5G radio access network (RAN). The only exception is Brazil, where all of the Brazilian operators launched 5G standalone access (SA) services in July 2022. This, combined with the deployment of spectrum in the 3.5GHz band, resulted in massive improvements in measures of the 5G experience across Brazil’s major cities. Argentina is also expanding its 5G SA network.

Most MNOs in LATAM use the 3.5GHz band for their 5G deployments, with only a handful of countries not using this band at all for 5G. Out of the analyzed countries, only Puerto Rico does not use the 3.5GHz band.

Looking at the proportion of our users’ 5G readings on the 3.5GHz band, four out of the nine analyzed markets use solely this band for 5G — with Brazil also almost entirely using 3.5GHz spectrum. Only Puerto Rico doesn’t make use of 3.5GHz spectrum, instead favoring lower bands (2.5GHz and 600MHz) for its 5G deployments, leading to lower average download speeds, but greater time spent on 5G. Low-band spectrum experiences less attenuation and is less susceptible to obstacles, allowing it to provide better indoor coverage.

In fact, our 5G users in Puerto Rico spend over half of their time with an active 5G connection. This is more than double the score of the next closest market, Chile. Puerto Rico is the only 5G market analyzed here that doesn’t use any 3.5GHz spectrum for 5G, allowing it the coverage benefits that lower bands provide. Meanwhile, other markets stick almost exclusively to the 3.5GHz band for their 5G deployments. However, relying on lower bands for 5G rollouts comes with the trade-off of reduced speeds.

Spectrum opportunities change based on the geographical challenges presented by each market. Difficult terrains and extensively rural populations make expansion costly and inefficient. Puerto Rico has far less area to cover than the other analyzed markets, allowing easier densification of the network. Uruguay, which has one quarter of Puerto Rico’s 5G Availability, has a similar population size but 10 times the land area.

It takes time to rollout infrastructure and refine network practices. This gives Puerto Rico an advantage, as it was the first LATAM market to widely launch a commercial 5G offering — doing so in late 2019. This is in contrast to some other markets such as Colombia, which launched 5G earlier this year.

The overall experience (the average experience across all users on all technologies, weighted by the time spent on each technology) is typically higher in 5G markets. This correlation is strongest for download speeds and on-demand video streaming. The lightning-fast speeds provided by 5G networks can greatly boost the average overall download speeds in a market, provided users spend a significant proportion of time with a 5G connection.

On top of quicker data transfers, 5G deployments contribute to the enhanced and smoother quality of video streaming services, as larger bandwidth enables higher resolution, lower latency, and reduced buffering — with faster speeds allowing the preloading of videos for mobile users.

Reliability Experience has a positive correlation with 5G markets, but not as strongly as that for Download Speed Experience and Video Experience. While the latter two are measures of the average score, Reliability Experience measures the ability of users to connect to and complete tasks on communication service providers’ networks, such as video, over-the-top voice calls, and web browsing. Stable connections are more important in this regard and basic tasks do not always require the newest generation of mobile networks for completion.

Although 5G markets appear at the top of all three of these rankings, 5G networks are not the only contributing factor. Well-developed infrastructure, network configurations, and specific market obstacles all play an important role in the overall experience.

The role of spectrum in LATAM’s mobile future

There are various strategies for deploying 5G, and they will have different outcomes for user experience. The same is true for the spectrum used, with higher bands delivering higher speeds and capacity. In comparison, lower bands reduce the number of cell sites that are needed to cover a given area, due to their superior propagation characteristics and in-building penetration but won’t deliver significant uplift in terms of speed.

Mobile spectrum plays a paramount role in user experience — and more spectrum assigned to mobile services is vital for expanding network capacity, improving service quality, and supporting the growing demand for data connectivity, especially in LATAM.

According to the GSMA report on LATAM, the average amount of spectrum assigned to mobile services in this region is below the international benchmarks, like EU and OECD countries — which makes network rollouts more complex and expensive. Assigning greater amounts of affordable spectrum to mobile operators would provide an incentive for major infrastructural investment, which in turn would boost mobile network coverage and increase the competitiveness of national economies.

For further insights and a deeper analysis of spectrum's impact, subscribe to Opensignal’s newsletter. To read more about spectrum, visit GSMA Spectrum and for more LATAM content, visit GSMA's Latin America.