Espoo, Finland – Omdia and Nokia’s “Why 5G in Latin America” report finds 5G will come to Latin America, sooner rather than later. The region lags its peers in productivity and economic growth, both of which will be enhanced by digital transformation. This, in turn, requires significantly enhanced broadband communications, and that leads to 5G which could add $3.3 trillion of value by 2035 and a $9 trillion improvement in productivity.

The report discusses the region’s macro-economic performance over the past decade, making the case for digital transformation and ultra-broadband, especially 5G. It highlights the problem: a gap with developed nations in broadband penetration which is not going away. It goes on to show how 5G impacts both consumers and enterprise and why it is essential to the region, country by country and industry by industry. Brazil will see the largest total gain with $1.216 trillion of 5G Economic impact and an increase in productivity of $3,084 trillion. The ICT industry will be most affected in the country with a $241 billion Economic impact.

5G is essential and therefore inevitable, argues the report, and devotes a chapter to getting ready, outlining recommendations for Service Providers such as upgrading 4G to be “5G ready” and pushing fiber deeper into the network. In a continent where 4G only reaches 50% of mobile connections, Policy Makers are encouraged to finish allocating 4G spectrum, to develop a clear spectrum policy roadmap and an infrastructure policy which both encourages and facilitates the private sector to invest in 5G.

Wally Swain, Principal Consultant for Omdia Latin America said: “Latin American countries must diversify their sources of income and jobs into higher value-added activities. Activities including mining and manufacturing must become more productive and 5G will play an important role on this”.

Osvaldo Di Campli, Head of Latin America for Nokia, said: “5G is much more than access. With 5G, the security of telecommunications networks will be even more crucial since we’ll have millions of sensors connected per square kilometers. When we develop equipment in Nokia, we are addressing network security right on the architecture. We deploy a process we call Design for Security, which means safety and trustworthiness are integral to our products rather than patched on top".