Movistar in Argentina

What follows draws on ENACOM, Argentina’s communications regulator, on the competition authority’s ruling, on Telecom Argentina’s filings and on dated press reports, with the date of every figure.

Who owns Movistar?

Movistar is the brand of Telefónica Móviles Argentina S.A. In February 2025 Telefónica’s holding company sold 99.999625% of it to Telecom Argentina, the company behind Personal, for US$1,245 million, and Telecom has consolidated it since 24 February 2025. The two networks have stayed apart while the approvals run their course: Telecom’s report of August 2026 says it does not decide Movistar’s commercial or pricing policies.

How did the regulators rule?

The government suspended the purchase in March 2025, and in June 2025 a federal appeals court lifted that suspension. In March 2026 ENACOM sent the competition authority a technical report that did not bind it. The report backed the deal only if Telecom gave up 6 million mobile customers within two years at most and returned 130 MHz of spectrum.

The authority’s resolution of 17 June 2026 follows that line. Telecom must hand at least 6 million active mobile customers to an independent buyer, 4 million of them in Greater Buenos Aires, together with the spectrum to serve them, and sell fixed internet customers in 28 localities. It has 18 months, the buyer may share Telecom’s network for at least three years, and the technical design of the spectrum transfer is left to ENACOM.

What happens to the Movistar brand?

The authority approved Metrotel as the buyer in September 2026. On 14 October Telecom’s board accepted its US$450 million offer, which covers customers, spectrum rights, network core and fibre in the City of Buenos Aires, a sharing agreement for the radio network and sites, and a licence for the Tuenti brand. Infobae reported on 15 October that the Movistar brand will begin to leave the mobile market, while Telecom keeps the customers that are not sold.

Customers chosen for the move are told one by one between 19 October and the end of November 2026, and they do not need a new SIM card. Under the authority’s ruling, their contracts and numbers go with them at no cost. On 31 October 2026 movistar.com.ar was still selling mobile and fibre plans under the Movistar name.

Movistar’s lines and share

Telecom’s report gives Movistar’s company about 19.5 million mobile accesses on 30 June 2026, machine lines included, 237 thousand more than a year earlier, and 49% of them postpaid. The competition authority put Movistar at 24.4% of the national mobile market. ENACOM’s count for all networks was 64.28 million mobile accesses in June 2025.

4G and 5G on Movistar

Notife reported on 17 December 2014 that Movistar’s 4G would start the following Monday in the centre of Buenos Aires, on frequencies it had paid US$209 million for. Its customers needed a new SIM card for it.

For 5G, Telefónica Móviles Argentina won lot 3B of the October 2023 auction, 50 MHz from 3,550 to 3,600 MHz, for US$175.013 million. By 4 January 2024 Movistar had switched on 5G antennas on that band in Mar del Plata and Pinamar, and in mid January it listed 5G in Retiro, Recoleta and La Plata as well. It said it would publish the cities with 5G, not the number of antennas.

eSIM and registration

Movistar offers eSIM for a new line or as a change from a physical chip, with the same number, and activation needs a compatible phone, Wi-Fi and being in Argentina. For a foreign visitor, ENACOM’s rules ask for a passport or travel document and a declared length of stay, after which the line is cut off from traffic.

Install the eSIMSwitch it on after landingNo connection