Latin America. 5G Americas presented its report "International Best Practices for the Development of 4G and 5G Network Infrastructure in Latin America", in which it analyzes the state of wireless telecommunications infrastructure in the region, the challenges for its deployment in urban and rural areas, the evolution to new technologies and the enabling elements for the deployment of infrastructure.
"When analyzing the role of telecommunications services for economic, productive and social development, we see that there is a need in Latin America to consider how continuous investment in infrastructure can be encouraged, taking into account that mobile service is one of the most capital-intensive, because it is constantly being renewed. Wireless technologies are not static, but every 12 to 18 months there are updates to them. All these updates imply constant investment by mobile service operators," explained José Otero, vice president for Latin America and the Caribbean of 5G Americas.
"In almost the entire region, especially in Central America, we have a great shortage of radio spectrum allocated and cleared to be able to use it for telecommunications services. There are countries where frequencies have not been allocated for more than 20 years. There are countries in the region where there is more than one government entity regulating the deployment of infrastructure," Otero warned.
The report "International Best Practices for the Development of 4G and 5G Network Infrastructure in Latin America" lists a series of guidelines that can contribute to strategies and public policies facilitating the deployment of infrastructure and digital adoption, such as defining in a precise and standardized way the procedures for infrastructure deployment; implement a one-stop shop for the processing of authorizations for laying networks; adopt national legislation or unify requirements at different levels of government in a normative manual; make the adoption of small cells more flexible; and incentivize the deployment of networks in areas of low profitability or long-term investment returns.
Similarly, the analysis recommends generating regulations that favor the co-location of network equipment and facilitating infrastructure sharing agreements between the private sector, in addition to having radio spectrum frequencies in low, medium and high bands with clear rules and award processes aimed at increasing coverage and improving services, among other aspects.
