Once more, and with over 400 participants from 23 countries, the GSMA Latin America Plenary #42 brought the main leaders of the mobile ecosystem to address the public policy hottest issues in the region: LTE deployment, the need for spectrum, barriers for infrastructure development, quality of service, regulatory pressure and industry sustainability.
For the first time, the Plenary of the GSMA Latin América was held in Quito from 24 to 26 November. The Plenary was inaugurated by Augusto Espín Tobar, Minister of Telecommunications and Information Society of Ecuador, and Roberto Aspiazu, President of ASETEL . “ICTs have a significant impact on the economic system with respect to productivity, innovation and value chain reorganization. Investing and developing broadband has an economic return in the country as network deployment creates jobs and increasing ICT leads to higher employment rates”, said the Minister Espín Tobar, who also revealed key elements of the strategy Ecuador Digital 2.0.
During the regional meeting, Sebastián Cabello, Director of GSMA Latin America, presented the results of the new report “The Mobile Economy of Latin America 2014“. The study highlights the mobile industry accounted for 4.1% of regional GDP in 2013 and postulates that future investment (capex) of mobile operators reaches USD 193,000 million between 2014 and 2020.
“Mobile is –from an economic and social perspective– a revitalizing element, they promote local development throughout their value chain which has significant potential in generating content, software and applications. In order to continue its growth, the industry needs consistent public policies that provide clarity and visibility in spectrum allocation, incentives and appropriate legal certainty to ensure investment in future networks”, said Cabello.
On Tuesday the 25th, during the plenary session, there was a discussion panel on the current situation and main challenges of the Ecuadorian mobile market. Alfredo Escobar San Lucas, Executive President of CONECEL (Claro Ecuador), José Manuel Casas Aljama, Executive President of OTECEL (Movistar Ecuador) and César Regalado, General Manager National Telecommunications Corporation (CNT of Ecuador) were among other national mobile operators leaders present on the event.
Alfredo Escobar, Executive President of Claro, highlighted: “Spaces like the one GSMA Latin America creates today are important for the industry, being able to participate is an additional way to keep contributing to the country telecommunications development.”
In turn, José Manuel Casas, Executive President of Movistar, said: “Plenary GSMA are always very valuable spaces to discuss the most relevant issues for the telecommunications industry. Its celebration in Ecuador certainly means a big boost for the development of public policies to accelerate technological growth of the country, thanks to first-hand know global best practices.”
Meanwhile, César Regalado Iglesias, General Manager of the National Telecommunications Corporation (NTC) said: “Developing nations mobile telephony contribution and impulse, progress, statistics and references, evolution and future, are among others important factors to be considered in the business activity. From the National Telecommunications Corporation CNT EP we welcome this initiative and, with great anticipation, we are part of this Plenary from which we hope to get valuable inputs, contributions and knowledge; backgrounds to will help projecting ourselves rightly, to where the real needs of the market and citizenship lead us.”
The plenary session also included keynote presentations from specialists like Raul Katz, Associate Professor of Business Strategy at Columbia Business School, Lorena Torres López, Director Bluenote Management Consulting, and Sonia Agnese, senior analyst at consultancy Ovum. In addition, a panel on “The Challenges of LTE and migration to IP networks” was conducted where international experts like Massimo Chiavacci, Marketing Director of Telecom Italia Sparkle, Rhode Jesper Andersen, Head of Marketing at Ericsson for Latin America, Mikaël Schachne, VP Mobile Data Business in BICS and Francisco Soares, Senior Director Government Affairs of Qualcomm took part.
The GSMA Latin America Plenary Meeting #42 began on Monday the 24th with a full day of open seminars where many international and regional experts took part and covered topics such as: Machine-to-Machine communications (M2M), LTE and VoLTE deployments, mobile money, recycling and electronic waste management, present and future of the spectrum, best practices regarding sanctions and use of universal service funds and devices public policies.