5G Americas applauds LatAm govt IoT initiatives

Mobile industry association 5G Americas has applauded public policies introduced by Latin American governments in recent months to stimulate the growth of the internet of things (IoT) ecosystem.

Brazil

Brazil has launched an IoT platform for the development of applications that fit with the country's national broadband plan "Brasil Inteligente", the new version of the national broadband policy, known as PNBL.

The state assigned the 71-76GHz, and 81-86GHz bands for use in M2M applications and expects to introduce a specific IoT plan in the short term. Official data show that there were 11.8mn M2M lines in July.

Chile

While Chile has not yet defined an IoT policy, telecoms regulator Subtel and other state bodies have collaborated to introduce IoT-related projects. UK telco Vodafone was granted an MVNO license in August this year, which the company has said it will use specifically for offering IoT services.

There were an estimated 400,000 M2M lines in March, 2016.

Colombia

Colombia's communications regulatory body CRC has submitted a bill to public consultation that touches on the area of IoT and has spoken of assigning specific spectrum bands for IoT. The CRC has said that energy consumption will be a challenge for IoT as it draws on different networks. LTE penetration in the country reached 8% in 1H16.

Mexico

Mexico's telecoms regulator IFT is yet to introduce specific regulation on IoT, but the watchdog has spoken of using both licensed and non-licensed spectrum for IoT. Mobile operator Telcel and incubator Startup Mexico last month presented the Conecta Tu Mundo initiative, a program aimed for entrepreneurs in the IoT space.

Peru

Peru's transport and communications ministry has published a consultative document related to new trends in ICT and smart cities. Peru is fifth-ranked country in the region in terms of LTE penetration, which is considered the fundamental backbone for smart cities. 5G Americas predicted last year that Peru will experience the fastest growth in M2M connections in the next decade, rising from 0.3mn in 2014 to 4.3mn in 2024, citing data from Machina Research.

CHALLENGES

5G Americas said that one of the central drivers of IoT for authorities is smart cities. This will require adequate spectrum for LTE-A technology and the deployment of small cells.

Key challenges for development of the IoT ecosystem, include ensuring integrated security of all devices used, which requires coordination between the public and private sectors, particularly for standardized IoT SIM cards.

Another policy requirement will be privacy laws. The migration to IPv6 will also have to speed up to ensure sufficient IP addresses for all of the new devices. Of the five countries mentioned above, Peru is the most advanced in terms of migration to IPv6, reaching a level of 15.26%, followed by Brazil with 9.16%, while the rates in Mexico, Chile and Colombia are still under 1%.

5G Americas also underscored the need for cross-border roaming agreements.