Regulatory modernisation necessary to understand Latin American digital ecosystem key topic at CLT 2016

The successful fourth Latin American Telecommunications Congress (CLT) 2016, held in Cancún, brought together senior executives in the Latin American digital ecosystem during four days of activities, as they interacted with key ICT ministers and representatives of telecommunications regulatory bodies from Argentina, Chile, Colombia, Costa Rica, Guatemala, Ecuador, El Salvador, Honduras, Mexico, the Dominican Republic, Panama and Uruguay. More than 450 participants from 31 countries addressed the future regulation of the digital ecosystem as the central topic of the event in Cancún, at a time when the pace of regulatory changes is not keeping up with the speed of change in the digital world.

The CLT16 plenary session began on Monday 20 June with a keynote by Serafino Abate,CTL16 01 Director of Competition Economics, GSMA, on the “New regulatory framework for the digital ecosystem” and its competitive dynamics. According to Abate, “The future regulatory framework should reduce regulatory asymmetries, promote innovation in the context of dynamic competition and allow the objectives of policy public and governments to be achieved in the most effective way possible for the mobile industry”. View the full presentation here.

The talk by Abate was an introduction for the panel “Challenges for future regulation”, where the participants were Carlos López Blanco, General Director of Public Affairs and Regulation, Telefónica; Héctor Huici, Secretary of ICT, Argentina; Daniel Bernal, Director of Regulatory Affairs, América Móvil; Pedro Huichalaf, Undersecretary of Telecommunications, Chile; and Ernesto Nemer Álvarez, Attorney, Office of the Federal Attorney for Consumer Protection, Mexico. See a summary of the keynote here.

The first day of the CLT16 plenary session also included a keynote by Dr Mohamed CTL16 03Madkour, Global Vice President of wireless network marketing, Huawei, on how to achieve a better connected Latin America, and a discussion panel on the internet in the next five years, with participants Kathy Brown, ISOC; FTI commissioner Mario Fromow; Executive Secretary of CITEL, Oscar León; and representatives from LACNIC, ICANN, Google and Telefónica. See a summary of the first day of CLT here.

Challenges for the digital development of Latin America

 

On the second day of CLT16, public-private debate continued with panels on “Investments CTL16 02in telecommunications to close the digital divide”, the potential for the development of a single digital market in Latin America, and the impact of WRC15 on mobile services and broadcasting. Mobile industry representatives taking part in the debate included Sebastián Kaplan, Director of Regulatory Affairs for Latin America, Millicom; Alejandro Cantú, General Counsel, América Móvil; Daniel Rios, Director of Public Policy, AT&T; and José Juan Haro, Director of Regulatory Affairs, Telefónica.

The CLT16 plenary session ended with a high level session on the “Challenges for the digital development of Latin America”, moderated by Sebastián Cabello, Head of GSMA Latin America. The participants were Mónica Aspe, Undersecretary of Communications, Secretariat of Communications and Transport, Mexico; David Luna, ICT Minister, Colombia; Augusto Espín, Telecommunications and Information Society Minister, Ecuador; Eduardo Caride, President, Telefónica Hispanoamérica; Carlos Slim Domit, Chairman of the Board of Directors, América Móvil; Germán Darío Arias Pimienta, President of Regulatel and Executive Director of CRC Colombia; Gabriel Contreras, President of FTI; and Mario Cimoli, CEPAL.

“Investment in telecommunications is top out of various activities, but it’s the second highest tax generating industry and in some countries smartphones are still considered a luxury item and are subject to special taxes,” said Caride.

According to Slim Domit, “The demand for data doubles every year and therefore the industry needs sufficient spectrum, productive investments and flexible regulatory conditions”. See the summary of the second day of CLT here.

OECD Ministerial Meeting on the Digital Economy

 

Held alongside CLT16, the 2016 Digital Economy Ministerial Meeting of the Organisation for Economic Cooperation and Development (OECD) was attended by the 34 OECD member countries, as well as invited countries, industry stakeholders and international civil organisations. On Tuesday 21, a launch was held for the document “Broadband Policies for Latin America and the Caribbean: A Digital Economy Toolkit”, where Sebastián Cabello, Head of GSMA Latin America, was one of the speakers representing the industry.

Contribution of the mobile ecosystem to Mexico’s economy

 

Mexico took centre stage on the third day of CLT16, which included a seminar organised by SCT to evaluate the country’s telecommunications reform. The participants were Gerardo Ruiz Esparza, Secretary of Communications and Transport, Mexico; Houlin Zhao, Secretary General of the ITU; and Mónica Aspe, Undersecretary of Communications, Secretariat of Communications and Transport, Mexico.

During the seminar a new report by the GSMA, “Country Overview Mexico: Mobile driving growth, innovation and opportunity”, was launched. The report highlights how Mexico’s mobile market is boosting productivity and economic growth. In 2015, the overall contribution of mobile was more than $40 billion, accounting for almost 3.5 per cent of the country’s total GDP. This percentage includes direct and indirect contributions, as well as productivity and efficiency gains through the use of mobile technology. The mobile ecosystem also created some 335,000 jobs.

Organisers and regional forums

 

The organisers of CLT16 were the International Telecommunication Union (ITU), the Secretariat of Communications and Transport of Mexico (SCT), CAF-Development Bank of Latin America, the GSMA (the global association of the mobile ecosystem) and the Inter-American Association of Telecommunications Companies (ASIET).

The regional meeting hosted other activities on Wednesday 22 and Thursday 23 June, such as the workshop on Competition Policy in the Digital Age by the Digital Ecosystem Capacity Building programme, the Annual Conference of CPR Latam (the cross-disciplinary network of research centres uniting the leading ICT academics in the region) and the Board of the Regional Technical Commission of Telecommunications (Comtelca). The meeting of REGULATEL, the Latin American Forum of Telecommunications Regulators, was also held alongside CLT.

 

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