Latin America and the expansion of the 5G network

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5G networks promise greater coverage and speed in navigation. (photo: ComputerHoy.com)

5G has been called the most recent communication connection technology that the world has seen and that is expected to replace the previous ones, however, this migration process has not been generated in a homogeneous way throughout the planet, but there are regions that advance more than others.

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According to Ericsson’s “Mobility Report”, in the case of Latin America, only 7 countries have launched the 5G network commercially, but tests continue to be carried out in the rest of the region to implement its use.

Due to the above, the majority of citizens continue to use 4G technology, which by the end of last year represented two thirds of all mobile plans.

According to this same report, although 5G has not been widely implemented, data traffic has continued to grow because 4G coverage has been gaining ground due to the constant use of smartphones subscribed to postpaid mobile plans.

As it was mentioned already, Of the 33 countries that make up Latin America, only 7 have commercially launched the 5G network, and of the 630 million inhabitants of the entire region, 5 million have subscribed to these new networks. Although it is estimated that by 2027 this figure will reach 35% of all mobile subscriptions.

As for the other communication networks, the fourth generation continues to be predominant in Latin America, which has also grown in subscriptions with more than 70 million new plans by the end of 2021 and according to the company, the figure will continue to grow during the current year. .

3G networks, which at one time were the most widely used, currently reach 24% of subscribers, a figure that will continue to drop until it reaches 10% by 2027. On the 2G networks side, they register 8% of use and will drop to 7% in the next 5 years.

All this produced because as users migrate to new technologies, providers eliminate the previous networks to reuse the spectrum in the new ones.

According to Ericsson, global data traffic on mobile networks has doubled in the last two years. In addition, subscriptions for 5G increased by 70 million during the first quarter of this year to reach 620 million users, although it is estimated that they will reach one billion by the end of 2022.

Chafic Nassif, CEO for LATAM North and the Caribbean at Ericsson, assured that “At the global level, there is a widespread effort to make the adoption of 5G a reality. It is a joint effort between governments, operators and companies, since we are sure that this work will be transformed into economic capital and growth for many countries”.

In its 22nd edition, this report that the company does annually, also indicates that the data traffic of the global mobile network grew by 40% between the first quarter of 2021 and the first quarter of 2022. Produced by a greater acquisition of cell phones and a high consumption of audiovisual content that represents 69% of the use of mobile data, it is also presumed that this trend will increase a further 10% by the year 2027.

This growth in the use of mobile networks has been motivated by a greater circulation of telephones and the digitization of society and industries. Process that despite the health emergency, has not stopped.