ICT Ministers, regulators, executives from mobile operators and tech companies, leaders of international organisations, and academics from the sector are some of the first confirmed attendees for the seventh annual forum for discussion on digital policy in Latin America, to be held in July in Argentina.
With the attendance of public authorities and senior digital ecosystem executives from across Latin America and the Caribbean, the seventh Latin American Telecommunications Congress (CLT19) will be held from 1 to 5 July at Centro de Convenciones Brigadier General Juan Bautista Bustos, in Córdoba, Argentina. Identifying coordinated actions to bridge the digital divide and transforming production processes by incorporating new technologies will be the main themes for the event. Other topics on the agenda include the impact of 5G’s arrival and spectrum assignment policy.
Confirmed speakers include:
• Andrés Ibarra, Deputy Chief of Cabinet and Government Secretary of Modernisation, Argentina;
• Carlos Lugo Silva, Executive Director, Communications Regulation Commission (CRC), Colombia;
• Silvana Giudici, President, National Communications Agency (ENACOM), Argentina;
• Nelson Guillén, President, Dominican Telecommunications Institute (INDOTEL), Dominican Republic;
• María Elena Estavillo, former commissioner, Federal Telecommunications Institute, Mexico;
• Ángel Melguizo, Vice President, International External & Regulatory Affairs for Latin America, DirectTV;
• Ana Valero Huete, Director of Regulatory Affairs for Latin America, Telefónica;
• Gabriel Solomon, Head of Government & Industry Relations, Ericsson Europe and Latin America
See the full list here.
The Congress Plenary Session will cover several topics, such as the importance of spectrum in processes to digitalise economies; the pro-investment agenda for digital infrastructure; the challenges of safe internet under a multi-stakeholder approach; and the challenges of efficient spectrum planning. In addition, a series of workshops will be held on transforming universal service funds to bridge the digital divide in the region; Argentina’s digital agenda; democracy, freedom and rights on the internet and the future of internet governance; and promoting the deployment of new connectivity networks ahead of 5G.
CLT19 will also include a large range of parallel activities. On Monday 1 July, the region’s leading academics and researchers will examine ICT public policy in Latin America at the annual meeting of Communications Policy Research Latin America (CPR LATAM). On the same day, the International Telecommunication Union (ITU) will hold the forum “Spectrum management on the way to the World Radiocommunication Conference (WRC-19)”, a preparatory meeting for this key event on the future of 5G. The Congress will also host the Meeting of the Board of the Central America Regional Technical Commission of Telecommunications (COMTELCA), on Friday 5 July.
CLT19 is jointly led by ITU, CAF – Development Bank of Latin America, Inter-American Association of Telecommunications Companies (ASIET) and the GSMA, with Argentina’s Government Secretariat of Modernisation as host. It has the support of the Provincial Government of Córdoba and organisations including COMTELCA, Regulatel, ECLAC-eLAC, ICANN, Internet Society and LACNIC.
For more information and registration, please visit clt.lat.