LIVE FROM GSMA MOBILE 360 SERIES – LATIN AMERICA, BUENOS AIRES: Industry group the GSMA believes the mobile industry is heading towards a new era of intelligent connectivity and any region can be a leader if it gets its regulatory framework right.

In the opening keynote, the organisation’s CMO Michael O’Hara (pictured) explained a raft of presedential elections across Latin America (14 over a two-year period from November 2017) offered mobile players “an amazing opportunity to adjust some things” such as resetting regulatory frameworks, many of which were developed in the voice era and are not fit for a digital world.

He suggested the region reduce taxes on smartphones, a factor which often hampers ownership, and ensure there is sufficient spectrum for high quality connectivity.

O’Hara added services based on intelligent connectivity can come from any region, not just Silicon Valley and China: “Get the regulations right and you can be a significant player”.

Elaborating on what he meant by intelligent connectivty, he said it is a combination of 4G and 5G; IoT and the big data it generates; plus the emergence of artifical intelligence, all of which will help build the next generation of services.

This will enable, for example, the internet of transportation to go mainstream, resulting in fleets of driverless trucks and drones delivering goods, “all enabled by 5G sensing technology that will allow these variety of devices not to hit each other”

It will also have other applications such as virtual hospitals, which will take the strain off health services and help them cope with a growing and an ageing population.