LIVE FROM GSMA MOBILE 360 LATIN AMERICA, BOGOTA: Telefonica’s data traffic in Latin America increased by a factor of four in the past two years and the operator expects mobile data services to form the basis of the fourth industrial revolution.

Luis Malvido, executive director of Telefonica Hispanoamerica (pictured), said data is the new commodity replacing traditional, tangible products like timber and steel. This presents a tremendous opportunity for operators to bring the region up to par with the rest of the world from a technology view point, and will also determine success for the enterprise sector.

Telefonica wants to “jump on this bandwagon” and combined data from three platforms (data centres; systems; and products and services) onto a fourth platform where it is compiled and analysed.

Malvido said this data revolution “will explode” with 5G and “the challenge is to create new operational and financial models to develop the new networks”.

In his opinion this can only be done if operators collaborate with each other and with governments.

Taxation, spectrum and permits are issues “that must be rethought” as the process of tenders and bids, and getting licences and permissions, can take up to six months or more, and need to be faster.

He said IoT will mean a tonne of data coming in as everything from devices to animals is connected.

While data on consumer behaviour is crucial to shaping business decisions, Malvido noted it is important users control what data they want to share and who can see it.

Malvido also touched upon the importance of building OTT video services, as watching video on demand is replacing the classic pay per view model and users demand instant access to entertainment and information.