Subtel rejects WOM request to renew 800MHz spectrum concession

By James Calloway

Chile’s Subtel has refused WOM a 30-year renewal of its 800MHz spectrum concessions because the operator has had no customers on those frequencies since 2 November 2016. The refusal removes, for now, the route by which WOM could have retained the idle allocation.

Subtel said: “renewing the concessions for another 30 years would mean maintaining a spectrum allocation without effective use or benefits for users.” It also warned that “keeping idle frequencies could favour hoarding and generate risks for the competition.”

The 800MHz band was first assigned in 1995 to Telecom Celular, Telefónica del Sur and Radio Móvil Digital América. The allocation later moved to Nextel Chile and then to WOM, creating a chain of holders before the present renewal request.

Those rights initially supported radio communication services, including multi-RTA community repeater systems. Their original design does not resolve the current regulatory question: Subtel assessed the holder’s use of the frequencies, not the band’s historical association with a particular service.

WOM’s renewal request referenced LTE, reflecting the band’s attractiveness for newer technologies. That reference did not persuade Subtel. No LTE service, coverage figure, throughput result, equipment contract or vendor commitment appears in the available information, leaving the proposal without a demonstrated network.

Chile’s National Digital Plan provides the wider policy setting. The plan focuses on reorganising and recovering unused spectrum, and Subtel’s decision fits that objective by refusing to preserve an allocation that has produced no customers for years.

What does the refusal change for Chilean mobile users?

Immediately, little service changes, because WOM has not used the 800MHz frequencies since 2016. The practical effect is on spectrum availability: if the concession is not restored or replaced on appeal, Subtel can recover the band and determine its next use. The regulator has announced no assignment, deployment schedule or coverage commitment.

That distinction matters for LTE. The request showed that 800MHz remained commercially relevant, but a renewal would not itself have created a live network or new capacity. Any later LTE service depends on the unresolved appeal and reallocation process; neither Subtel nor WOM has set out a rollout plan in the available information.

WOM remains material to Chile’s wider mobile market despite the refusal on this allocation. It counts among the country’s largest telecommunications companies, operating alongside Movistar, Claro and market leader Entel, and it emerged from Chapter 11 bankruptcy in early 2025.

Available data puts WOM’s mobile subscriber share at about one fifth, placing it fourth in the overall market. Its share of mobile internet lines is put at about one quarter, which ranks it second in that segment. Those estimates describe the operator’s broader business; they do not indicate activity on the contested 800MHz frequencies.

The subscriber figures carry an important qualification: the underlying totals are difficult to obtain. The regulatory finding is narrower and firmer. WOM has not used the frequencies since 2 November 2016, while Subtel has rejected a further 30-year hold and identified competition and hoarding concerns.

WOM has not said whether it will appeal, and Subtel has not said where the frequencies will go if they do not remain with WOM. The next procedural milestones are therefore an appeal, if filed, and a decision on recovery and reallocation. No appeal deadline or reallocation timetable has been announced.

The policy test ahead is narrow: whether WOM appeals and whether Subtel can move the 800MHz band into a new assignment under the National Digital Plan. No appeal date, reallocation date or investment timetable has been announced.