Latin America must build its own architecture to get the most out of 5G

This Thursday, experts and academics recommended that Latin American countries clearly define how to use the technology 5G and build your own reference architecture to implement it, as ways to get the most out of this “great technological proposal.”

The challenges for the adoption of the fifth generation of mobile phone technologies or 5G were analyzed in the edition of “EFE Dialogues: Cybersecurity and 5G, Innovation will mark the future of Central America”which is part of the activities celebrating the 50th anniversary of EFE’s presence in Central America.

Define the use of 5G

In the opinion of Aníbal Coto, director of the School of Electronics at the Technological Institute of Costa Rica, a central aspect is to define how this new technology is intended to be used, which is a decisive factor for the innovation and competitiveness that new times will require.

Coto explained that there is a lot of talk about issues such as video download speed, “which is going to be a great advance”but there are many other uses for this technology, such as “in industry, in precision agriculture, in sensor networks, autonomous vehicles and so on.”

“Establish how we are going to use the very high speed and low latency capabilities” 5G will not only allow the countries of the region to be competitive in the industrial field, but also “anticipate the security scenarios necessary to protect all networks”.

In Central America, he added, “We are taking the step to start (…) we need all the necessary infrastructure to be able to develop these technical experiences.”

In this sense, the vice president of Public Affairs of the telecommunications company Huawei in Latin America and the Caribbean, César Fuentes, assured that the areas of use of 5G technology “They are practically unlimited”.

“We are observing very nice, very sophisticated things in different markets (…) the first use case that we observe in Latin America and Central America is to increase broadband so that it reaches more people and thus enhance the digital transformation”he claimed.

Your own reference architecture

Esteban Jiménez, Director of Technology at Atti Cyber ​​and founder of the Association of Digital Security Specialists of Costa Rica, recommended that Latin American countries create their own reference architectures for the implementation of 5G technology, so that it adapts to reality. particular to each one.

“Sometimes we make the mistake of implementing architectures from the United States, Europe, Asia, when in reality in Latin America what we have to do is take the particularities of our region and base ourselves on the good practices of countries that have already been successful.” “by putting this type of technologies, generating a local mix”Jiménez explained.

In this regard, the Huawei manager said that the most convenient thing is “encourage and not limit.”

“We think that we must continue looking for a way to take advantage of technology from all latitudes, and for that we are totally committed to all these 16 years in Costa Rica and hoping for many more”he added.

Huawei filed an appeal for protection before the Constitutional Chamber of Costa Rica due to its potential exclusion from the contracting processes for the development of 5G technology in the country.

A requirement to compete is that the countries of origin of the companies have signed or are in the process of adhering to the Budapest Convention, which has to do with cybersecurity and the fight against cybercrime.

China is not a signatory of this agreement, so companies such as the technology giant Huawei will not be able to participate in contracts for 5G equipment and software in Costa Rica.