The National Competition Authority of Argentina (ANC) has approved Metrotel as the asset transferee, a key antitrust precondition for Telecom Argentina’s acquisition of Movistar, the Argentine subsidiary of Telefónica. The asset divestiture covers over 6 million mobile subscribers and 211,400 fixed-line broadband subscribers. The move enables Metrotel, which previously focused on enterprise, government and wholesale services, to enter the mass consumer telecommunications market, with the full divestiture required to be completed within 18 months.
The acquisition was first announced in February 2025, with a transaction value of $1.245 billion. Prior to the merger, Argentina’s mobile market was dominated by three operators: Claro, Telecom and Movistar. Upon completion of the merger, Telecom would hold a 58% market share, and the resulting high market concentration has raised regulatory concerns. The regulator has therefore imposed mandatory asset divestiture as a constraint, requiring the transfer of a portion of subscribers and supporting resources to a new market entrant to maintain the industry’s competitive landscape.
Of the more than 6 million mobile subscribers to be transferred, approximately 4 million are concentrated in the Buenos Aires metropolitan area, while the remaining 2 million are distributed across Argentina, alongside supporting resources required to ensure normal service operation. While the regulator has confirmed the transferee entity, Telecom and Metrotel still need to finalize the commercial terms of the deal and sign the official agreement. The entire divestiture process will be supervised by an independent oversight body and the Secretariat for Economic Competition.
For end users, their contracts, mobile phone numbers and usage history will be transferred together, and numbers will not be immediately deactivated. However, details regarding tariff plans, billing models and customer service channels are yet to be finalized. Following the completion of the transaction, Metrotel will grow into a large-scale mass market mobile operator in Argentina, while Telecom will continue to advance the integration of Movistar’s core assets.
