Like Movistar did, Personal announced this Friday that its 4G telephone service is now available in the country. As in the case of Movistar, the geographical availability is limited for now, although broader than its competitor.
Thus, while Movistar has several radio bases in the downtown area of Buenos Aires and will expand its coverage in the coming weeks, Personal says it offers 84 active sites in "strategic areas" (according to the statement it released today afternoon) of Buenos Aires, Córdoba and Rosario. It hopes to reach 200 sites in the first quarter of next year, and reach 85% of its clients throughout the country in 2 years.
An advantage of Personal over Movistar and Claro is that clients do not have to change the chip (unless it is very old). Thus, those who have a phone compatible with LTE networks only have to activate that frequency on the phone to access the service. They also do not have to change their data plan.
In this note we clarify which phones were sold with LTE in Argentina until today, and which will arrive in the coming months from local operators. Any phone coming from abroad that is compatible with the AWS standard will be able to connect to local LTE networks.
Personal released maps that show the coverage that the service will have in the coming days, and that it will be expanded. Movistar does something similar, but will offer an application to see which areas have LTE.
What is the advantage of 4G telephony?
A faster Internet connection from the phone than 3G (about ten times faster, in theory; but it is defined by the company). Calls and SMS continue to be sent over 3G.
But the availability of 4G decongests 3G networks, so in the long term - when there is a considerable change of users from 3G to 4G - the quality of calls should improve compared to the current situation. This will not change in the immediate future.
For intensive cell phone data users this is good news; For most users, it does not offer, for now, great advantages - beyond the fact that a site will load faster or a WhatsApp message will arrive sooner. And it will take several months until the Personal and Movistar service (and Claro's when they offer it commercially) covers the entire city and surrounding areas.
As defined in the tender for the spectrum necessary to offer 4G in Argentina, the companies have 5 years to cover the entire populated territory with the LTE service.
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Source of Information: La Nación Tecnología
