Last week Mexico City received the most important telecommunications congress in the region, Mobile 360 LATAM, where executives from the mobile industry, regulators and politicians and international organizations attend.
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The discussions confirmed thate The situation of the mobile telecommunications industry in Latin America remains challengingdue to a combination of external factors such as weak economic growth, as well as pressures in the sector itself with more players and greater competition (not always with the same regulation), costs for spectrum renewals or new concessions, and the pressure to continue investing in communication networks to bring more coverage to remote rural areas, while the demand for data and higher speeds continues to grow.
But we would highlight tThree less common topics on the agenda that represent the future (or probably the present) of the industry: the Open RAN Alliance, the Open Gateway initiative and the positioning of the sector in the development and use of Artificial Intelligence.
The Open RAN Alliance (O-RAN ALLIANCE eV) is an initiative of the mobile industry that officially seeks unbundling, automation and openness in mobile networks. that connect smartphones and devices to the Internet and other users, enabling telecom operators to work with different providers at the same time.
To do this, a group of global operators – initially AT&T, China Mobile, Deutsche Telekom, NTT Docomo and Orange; today 32 operators and nearly 300 contributors – including all US big techs – have joined forces since 2018 with the goal of creating global standard specifications that allow operators to source components from multiple vendors, theoretically reducing investment and maintenance cost of mobile networks through increased competition.
(See: The West seeks common standards for Artificial Intelligence).
Telecommunications companies.
However, in practice, the notable Chinese investment in networks and technological infrastructures in Latin America explains why only AT&T and Telefónica are members of the alliance.
In fact, it is speculated that this is a mechanism for replacing Chinese technology in existing networks in the West, seeking to replace them with O-RAN solutions seeking to position the advantages of US software companies over the current provision of equipment from Chinese companies.
Again, this shows the global geopolitical tensions in the main technological developments, and the region’s somewhat passive position towards them.
Maybe more interesting yese ofbeat the Open Gateway initiative (GSMA | GSMA Open Gateway – Future Networks) launched in 2022 at the Mobile World Congress in Barcelona with the support of 21 global mobile operators, to facilitate access to operator networks by means of application programmable interfaces (APIs) for developers. This is a strategic move by operators to provide network services (‘network as a service’) and reposition themselves in more profitable segments of the Internet value chain.
(See: ‘Artificial intelligence could lead humanity to its extinction’).
According to him In an analysis prepared by the consulting firm Kerney for the GSMA, connectivity barely represents 15% of all the value of the Internet compared to 57% of online services (with margins that tend to be 5%, much lower than the 15% of services).
The initiative seeks that the operators, through these public APIs, allow developers and OTTs, and the innumerable services that today operate on the network, to optimize their traffic, have better tools, but also leave part of the business to the telcos , which today feel like commodities within the industry.
In this case, in Latin America América Móvil, AT&T, Telefónica and recently Telecom Argentina are already members of it.
Lastly, the development and use of Artificial Intelligence (AI) occupied a large part of the agenda with a session on the business around it.
The IA offers great opportunities in operational efficiencies to the network helping its management, optimizing traffic, predicting infrastructure maintenance, unified communications, application control and the development of new business opportunities from the processing of a large volume of data.
However, along with these business developments, the responsibility of the sector was highlighted not only as developers of AI tools, but also as users and buyers. To the extent that AI developments do not have legal personality, it is the operators who must respond to any risk of their implementation.
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Thus, in our opinion, a modern regulation of AI far from representing a burden could be an asset to reduce uncertainty about what can and cannot be done, and to ‘point out’ for good (before investors, citizens and governments) those most responsible operators (disclaimer: Ángel Melguizo advises Unesco in its collaboration with companies in applying the United Nations recommendation on artificial intelligence and ethics; by the way, for Colombian readers and operators, the new ICT minister of Colombia Lizcano announced an AI law for the second half of the year).
Concluding, when more initiatives are heard from telcos in OpenRan – and more generally about the opening and strengthening of value chains -, Open Gateway with operators entering platform businesses beyond voice and data or mobile payments, and steps towards ethical and responsible AI, will be a sign that the mobile sector is more in the future (finally) than in the past.
(See: Artificial intelligence in banking is already a reality).
ÁNGEL MELGUIZO AND VICTOR MMUÑOZ
Partners of ARGIA, Green, Tech & Economics consulting
