LIVE FROM MOBILE 360 LATIN AMERICA: With the evolution of digital services in Latin America echoing that seen elsewhere, with increasing mobile penetration coupled with the emergence of a new breed of competitors and so-called ‘over-the-top’ services, “right now in Latin America we are just beginning our dialogue, and we need to be heard more”, commented Juan Antonio Abellan, executive director of Telefonica Hispanoamerica North.

Citing the example of Europe, where “it’s a lot more advanced, and they have been struggling for much longer”, the executive said “we have to let the market, the world, the governments know what is happening, and the just and fair rules we are aiming for.”

“We have to be able to transmit to them where the telecommunications world is going,” he observed.

The need for a regulatory regime which creates a level playing field between traditional telecoms players and other ecosystem players from adjacent domains such as the internet, healthcare and financial services was the key theme emerging from the morning keynote session.

Key to this will be collaboration. “If we don’t manage to get together and bind ourselves, we will not have as much success as we could,” the Telefonica executive cautioned.