Personal in Argentina

The figures on this page come from ENACOM, Argentina’s communications regulator, from the national competition authority, and from Telecom Argentina’s own filings and help pages, each with its date.

Who runs Personal?

Personal is the mobile brand of Telecom Argentina S.A., the legal name on its help pages and in its filings. Telecom’s financial statements name Cablevisión Holding S.A. as its controlling company since 1 January 2018. When Cablevisión’s frequencies passed to Telecom, the company went over ENACOM’s spectrum cap of 140 MHz in some areas, so in March 2022 the regulator had it give back segments of the 900 MHz and 2600 MHz bands. Since 24 February 2025 Telecom has also consolidated Telefónica Móviles Argentina, the company behind Movistar. Its report for the first half of 2026 says Telecom does not set that company’s commercial or pricing policies.

How many lines does Personal have?

On 30 June 2026 Telecom counted about 19.4 million mobile lines on Personal in Argentina, 1.5 million or 7.1% fewer than a year earlier. The company ties the fall to prepaid lines that went 240 days without a recharge and were then disconnected. Postpaid lines grew by 102 thousand in the second quarter, and prepaid made up 59% of the base against 41% postpaid.

Ruling on Telecom’s purchase of Telefónica in June 2026, the competition authority measured Personal at 33.8% of the national mobile market, against 41.8% for Claro and 24.4% for Movistar. ENACOM counts every network together: 64.55 million mobile accesses for 2025, or 139.05 for every 100 inhabitants, in figures it published on 15 April 2026.

4G and 5G on Personal

Personal’s 4G went live on 19 December 2014, with 84 LTE sites across Buenos Aires, Córdoba and Rosario. Telecom’s report for the first half of 2026 puts the population coverage of its 4G at 98%.

Its 5G began in February 2021 on ten sites, five in Buenos Aires and five in Rosario. They used DSS, a technique that shares the frequencies of the 4G network. In the auction of 24 October 2023 Telecom took the 3,400 to 3,500 MHz block for US$350.026 million, and by 4 December 2023 it reported its first standalone 5G antennas on that band in the Buenos Aires metropolitan area. On 4 January 2024 it counted 68 sites on the new spectrum, with Mar del Plata, Pinamar and Cariló on the Atlantic coast among them. Telecom added 375 more 5G sites in the first half of 2026.

Personal’s help page lists what 5G takes: a compatible phone set to search for 5G, inside a 5G coverage zone. The SIM card does not need changing.

eSIM on Personal lines

Personal offers eSIM on its own lines, for now on specific phones that are unlocked and free of any SIM lock. The holder of a Personal line can switch from a physical SIM to an eSIM in the Mi Personal website or app, and nobody else can make the request, which includes an identity check. Personal sends word through Mi Personal when the QR code is ready, and the old physical SIM stops working once the change is complete.

Registering a Personal line as a visitor

ENACOM’s rules tie every mobile line to an identified holder. A visitor without an Argentine DNI shows a passport or a valid travel document and says how long the stay will last; when that period ends, the operator must stop the line from carrying traffic. ENACOM announced these rules on 22 March 2023, and they also require a biometric or multi-step check before a SIM change or a change of the line’s holder.

Install the eSIMSwitch it on after landingNo connection