Latin American Countries Analyse the Mass Use of Mobile Broadband Using the 450MHz Frequency

(3 October 2013) Latin American countries taking part in the Regional Dialogue on Broadband asked the Economic Commission for Latin America and the Caribbean (ECLAC), in its role as technical secretariat, to carry out a new study on the benefits of using the 450 MHz frequency for the mass use of mobile broadband in the region.

ECLAC previously produced a document on using this frequency to provide mobile broadband in rural areas. That document explained its advantages, particularly in terms of reducing service costs. The report was presented at the seventh meeting of the Regional Dialogue on Broadband on 1 October in Barcelona, Spain.

At the meeting, which was attended by representatives from Chile, Mexico, Peru and Uruguay, participants discussed the steps to follow in installing a new submarine cable between Europe and Latin America, as well as the potential of the 450MHz frequency.

The new study requested by countries will estimate the investment costs needed to roll out the necessary infrastructure for using this frequency of the electromagnetic spectrum. The 450 MHz bandwidth would make it possible to roll out the use of mobile broadband in areas with low coverage (particularly rural areas).

The seventh meeting of the Dialogue was preceded by the international seminar on Innovation and regulation in ICTs. A comparative view between Europe and Latin America, which was organized by ECLAC and the Institute of International Studies in Barcelona (IBEI), with the collaboration of the Spanish Telecommunications Market Commission (CMT), Telefonica Foundation and the Huawei company, and the support of the School of Technical and Expert Telecommunications Engineers of Catalonia (COETTC).

The seminar was opened by Narcís Serra, representative from IBEI, Bernardo Lorenzo, President of the CMT, Carles Flamerich from the Telecommunications and Information Society Department of the Generalitat of Catalonia, and Mario Cimoli, Director of the ECLAC Division of Production, Productivity and Management.

The event was attended by authorities, academics and private-sector representatives from both regions, with discussions focusing on innovation, regulation and interconnection of information and communications technologies (ICTs) and broadband development.  In addition, Linda Corugedo-Steneberg, Director of the European Commission's DG Connect (D-Cooperation) presented the submarine cable project between Europe and Latin America.

The conference was closed by Víctor Calvo-Sotelo, Spanish Secretary of State for Telecommunications and the Information Society, who highlighted the need to strengthen relations between Europe and Latin America in this sphere, as well as ECLAC's role as facilitator of dialogue between the two regions.

Any queries should be sent to the ECLAC Public Information and Web Services Section.

E-mail: prensa@cepal.org; Telephone: (56 2) 2210 2040.

Follow us on Twitter, Facebook, Flickr and YouTube