By Daniel Okafor, Telecom Gazette senior correspondent

Chile has freed 60 MHz of airwaves in the 2.3 GHz band for private 5G and industrial use, according to a Telecompaper report. The decision shifts that mid-band block out of the licensed mobile carrier reserve.

What did Chile release, and at what band?

The 2.3 GHz band sits within the 3GPP-defined mid-band range, identified as band n40 in 5G NR specifications. It uses time-division duplex (TDD) and has hosted LTE services across Asia and Latin America since the early 2010s. Sixty MHz represents a substantial block, enough to support a single wide 5G NR carrier or several narrower allocations, depending on the framework the regulator publishes.

Propagation favours the band over higher 5G spectrum. Signals at 2.3 GHz penetrate buildings more reliably, travel further outdoors, and reduce the small-cell density that industrial sites require. Coverage radii of several hundred metres per cell are typical under standard power limits.

Why do industrial users need their own airwaves?

Private 5G lets enterprises deploy on-premises cores, isolate traffic, and customize security policies. Mining, port and factory operators cannot accept the variable latency of consumer networks during autonomous vehicle movements, robotic control or process-automation workloads. A shared mobile network serving smartphone subscribers cannot guarantee the determinism that industrial control systems require.

Dedicated spectrum also removes the consumer tariff structure. Enterprises pay for capacity rather than subscription data, which improves the economics of large-scale sensor and video deployments. The model has driven private 5G rollouts in Germany, France, Japan and the United Kingdom since 2020.

What changes for Chile's mobile operators?

The country's mobile carriers lose one more usable mid-band block. The 2.3 GHz allocation would otherwise have served as capacity relief for incumbent LTE services in dense urban markets. Operators now compete with private networks for enterprise contracts that previously defaulted to public mobile service.

The 60 MHz carve-out does not reclaim any existing licensed operator asset. The block adds new supply rather than redistributing capacity from incumbent license holders.

What equipment and vendors will enterprises use?

Operators of large industrial sites need small-cell base stations, private core software, and SIM or eSIM provisioning tools. Major radio vendors — Ericsson, Nokia, Huawei and Samsung Networks — already ship n40-compatible radio units. Cisco, Hewlett Packard Enterprise and a long tail of smaller suppliers provide the core and management layers.

Mining deployments typically extend underground, which complicates radio planning. Port operators prioritize outdoor coverage with intermittent indoor service. Manufacturing sites require dense indoor coverage with deterministic uplink performance. Each use case selects a different radio configuration but draws on the same 60 MHz of mid-band spectrum.

Forward outlook

Chile's allocation aligns the country with a regional pattern of separating industrial-grade spectrum from the public mobile pool. Brazil, Mexico and Colombia have explored similar frameworks for mining and energy operators, with award rules typically published within six to twelve months of an announcement. Regulators across Latin America will watch whether Chile's 60 MHz block attracts multi-site enterprise commitments, with further mid-band releases likely within the next two years.