There is an obligation for passive infrastructure sharing to deliver telecom services to end users. The sharing of passive infrastructure is regulated by different rules, among which the Passive Infrastructure Sharing Regulation, approved as an Annex to Resolution No. 105/2020 of the former Secretariat of Public Innovation, stands out. Moreover, passive infrastructure sharing is practised in the mobile and fixed sectors.

Art. 2 of Chapter II of Law 27,437 states that a preference for goods of national origin is granted when the amount of the selection procedure is equal or superior to the threshold of Decree 1,023/2001 (Art. 25.d.1 and its complementary provisions), which is reported to be around 8 million Argentine Pesos (approx. USD 66,000). The margin of preference for goods of domestic origin is 15% for Micro, Small and Medium Enterprises (MSMEs) and cooperatives listed in the National Institute of Partnerships and Social Economy of the Ministry of Social Development and 8% for other enterprises providing identical or similar services under cash payment terms. If the bids are all from companies of foreign origin, a margin of preference of 1% is granted for every five percentage-point share of the gross production value of the covered goods, which is locally integrated, up to a maximum margin of preference of 8%. Decree No. 800/2018 is the implementing Decree of Law 27,437.

Arts. 2-3 of Law No. 25.750 stipulate that foreign equity ownership in Internet service providers may not exceed 30%. This limit may be exceeded in the event of a reciprocity agreement. In addition, Art. 13 of Law No. 27.078 provides that ENACOM (Ente Nacional de Comunicaciones, National Communications Entity) must approve any proposed changes to shareholdings or partnership interests in companies in this sector if such changes would affect the control of the company.

Law 27,328 establishes that at least 33% of the goods and services used in public-private partnership contracts must be provided by local companies.

According to Law 26,092, the state-owned Empresa Argentina de Soluciones Satelitales S.A. (ARSAT S.A.) operates the federal fibre optic (backbone) network (ReFeFo) and provides retail fibre optic and satellite communication services. ARSAT acts as both a satellite operator and a reseller of satellite capacity to third parties. The company holds exclusive rights to operate and commercialise geostationary orbital position 81W in Ku-band (North and South America) and C-band (hemispheric coverage). The regulator for the telecommunications sector, the National Entity for Communications (ENACOM), allocates frequency bands to ARSAT directly and not through auctions. In 2019, it was decided that the frequencies not used by ARSAT would be put up for auction. However, the auctions have not yet been held. As a result, the State still maintains a monopoly over fibre optic wholesale and satellite communication services.

Argentina gives preference to MSMEs in public procurement procedures through the Compremipyme Programme. Under Art. 39 of Law No. 25,300, establishing the Programme, the jurisdictions and entities of the national public sector should apply a 5% preference right to tenders from MSMEs supplying goods or services produced in the country for purposes of comparing them with the best tender and awarding the goods or services contract to such enterprises. The Programme also stipulates a minimum preference rate of 10% in tenders or bids for the procurement of goods and services in which only MSMEs are competing. Furthermore, Art. 40 authorises the Executive to consider partial bids in order to facilitate and increase the participation of MSMEs in tenders and bids for the procurement of goods and services in quantities in line with their scale of production.

The Empresa Argentina de Soluciones Satelitales S.A. (ARSAT) is an Argentine state-owned company that belongs to the government of the Argentine Republic. The company was created in 2006 by Law No. 26,092; it operates the federal fibre optic network (ReFeFo) and provides retail fibre optic and satellite communications services. According to Art. 8 of Law 27,208, 51% of ARSAT belongs to the Argentine State, while the remaining 49% is private.

Argentina is not a party to the World Trade Organization (WTO) Agreement on Government Procurement (GPA). However, the country has been an observer of the WTO GPA since 1997.

Argentina has established both functional (Art. 47 of Law No. 27,078) and accounting separation (Art. 12 of Decree No. 764) for the operator with significant market power.

Arts. 2 and 3 of Law No. 25.750 stipulate that foreign equity ownership in digital content producers and Internet service providers may not exceed 30%. This limit may be exceeded in the event of a reciprocity agreement. There is no definition of digital content producers in the law. In addition, Art. 13 of Law No. 27.078 provides that ENACOM (Ente Nacional de Comunicaciones, National Communications Entity) must approve any proposed changes to shareholdings or partnership interests in companies in this sector if such changes would affect the control of the company.

Argentina has a single licensing system, regulated by the National Entity for Communications (ENACOM), for providing all types of telecommunications services, with or without its own infrastructure. When applying for a license, national and foreign operators are subject to the same requirements. The single license does not expire unless the operator requests its cancellation or ceases to fulfil its obligations as a service provider.
However, it has been reported that there are several long-standing applications for authority to operate certain satellite systems pending at the Undersecretariat of Information and Communications Technologies, which has failed to provide any information on the reason for the delay in processing such applications. Also, it has been reported that the country has high spectrum usage fees for satellite services.

According to Law 26,092, the state-owned Empresa Argentina de Soluciones Satelitales S.A. (ARSAT S.A.) operates the federal fibre optic (backbone) network (ReFeFo) and provides retail fibre optic and satellite communication services. ARSAT acts both as a satellite operator and as a reseller of satellite capacity to third parties. The company holds exclusive rights to operate and commercialise geostationary orbital position 81W in Ku-band (North and South America) and C-band (hemispheric coverage). The regulator for the telecommunications sector, the National Entity for Communications (ENACOM), allocates frequency bands to ARSAT directly and not through auctions. In 2019, it was decided that the frequencies not used by ARSAT would be put up for auction. However, the auctions have not yet been held. As a result, the State still maintains a monopoly over fibre optic wholesale and satellite communication services.

According to Arts. 48 and 54 of Law No. 27.078, as amended by Decree No. 690/2020, the National Communications Agency (ENACOM) regulates the pricing of essential and strategic public services, including basic fixed and mobile telephony services. This regulatory framework has been identified as a potential obstacle to the bidding process for fifth-generation (5G) mobile technology, which the government intended to initiate in early 2023. It is reported that if service prices continue to be set by the state, as stipulated in the Decree, companies may struggle to recover their investment.

According to Art. 256 of the Corporations Law, the majority of the board members of all companies must be residents of Argentina. In addition, all directors must establish a special domicile for the purposes of notification.

According to Art. 37 of the Patent Law, patent protection can only be obtained by filing separate national patent applications, but it may be endangered if the application for obtaining the same patent in another country was filed more than one year before the Argentinian filing date and/or it has already been published (Art. 13). In those cases, since Argentina adopts absolute novelty, the novelty requirement will not be fulfilled, and a patent will be denied.