The GSMA LA Plenary #40 in Lima had more than 350 attendees as a key meeting point for the mobile ecosystem. The meeting also provided the opportunity to focus the efforts on the next wave of investments coming in 2014 such as the start of deploying LTE in the region.
More than 27 national operators from more than 33 countries participated in the GSMA Latin America Plenary Meeting #40, along with 53 supplier companies of the industry, international experts and Peruvian authorities.
During the regional meeting, the “Mobile Economy Latin America 2013” report was launched. It includes a full evaluation of the impact that the mobile industry has for the economies of the countries from the region.
The event started with a day full of seminars about topics such as M2M solutions focused on Health and Mobile Education, Mobile Identity and Mobile Technologies for Development (M4D) and Disaster Response. We also had the “4th Latin America – EU Symposium on ICT Regulation: Consumer Protection and convergence” organized by Cullen International, OSIPTEL and GSMA which was attended by international experts such as Gabriel Salomon, Public Policy Vice President of GSMA, Antonio Preto, AGCOM Commissioner (Italy), José Alexandre Bicalho, Superintendent of Planning and Regulation of Anatel (Brazil), Roberto Martínez, Director of IFT (Mexico), and the expert in regulation Defraigne Phillippe, Director of Cullen International.
The Plenary 40 was opened by Sebastian Cabello, GSMA LA Director, Lorenzo Orrego, Director General of Control and Supervision of Communications of the Ministry of Communications and Transport of Peru, Gonzalo Ruiz Díaz, OSIPTEL President, and Gonzalo Prialé, President of AFIN.
The Director of GSMA Latin America presented about the Vision and the Challenges of the Mobile Industry in Latin America. “With over 632 million mobile connections and 319 million unique subscribers, mobile technology is the main way of access to internet in the region. The sector has promoted price declines stimulating competition but we need certainty in the formation of public policies to create a favourable framework to make the investments needed to continue investing and deploying the next LTE networks” highlighted Cabello.
During his speech, the President of AFIN highlighted that “it is necessary that an institutionally strong regulator ensures the proper functioning of the sector with strict respect of general management principles such as proportionality and reasonableness. Operators need to know that their investments are covered by a framework of legal certainty and municipalities should facilitate the deployment of networks providing peace and security to their neighbours”
Moreover, the Director General of Control and Supervision of Communications of the Ministry of Transport and Communications of Peru, Lorenzo Orrego, highlighted the purpose of the country in telecommunications: “We have to focus towards a universalization of the services and to do that; we need to expand the infrastructure. Nowadays, a country is inconceivable without an advanced technological development. We need to focus on the efforts of public policies to give true inclusion to the entire population and bring broadband to the whole country.
Among the international guests of the plenary, we had the participation of Hyunmi Yang, Chief Strategy Officer of GSMA, who gave an overview of the GSMA Vision 2020 plan which will be presented at the Mobile World Congress 2014 in Barcelona. Other internationally recognized experts also presented: Paolo Vecchia, EMF expert and former chairman of ICNIRP and Alfredo Bullard, an expert in law and arbitration.
During the regional meeting a panel consisting of local operators’ senior executives from Claro, Movistar and Nextel discussed the key challenges of the Peruvian mobile industry.. Elizabeth Galdo, Director of Regulatory Affairs and CSR Telefonica Moviles Peru, Juan Rivadeneira, Director of Regulatory Affairs of America Móvil Peru, and José Montes de Peralta, Legal and Regulatory Manager of Nextel Peru also participated in the debate. The main topic of the panel’s discussion was the need to facilitate the deployment of infrastructure to enable the strong investments planned by the mobile operators.
To close the Plenary 40, the 4 GSMA Latin America working groups (REGU, BARG, SEGF and TECT) and the GSMA CROG Latam hold their respective meetings.
Resources
- Presentations of the Plenary Session
- Presentations of the Working Groups on Infocentre: REGU, BARG, SEGF and TECT
- Pictures Gallery of the GSMA Latin America Plenary Meeting #40 in Lima