The deployment of 5G technology has already begun in Mexico. Both América Móvil and AT&T have announced very specific plans to offer the fifth generation of mobile communications in the country; however, the lack of a public policy for the digitization of the country, as well as the lack of institutional coordination, are two barriers to the adoption of 5G in remote areas.
More than half of the population still uses equipment with 3G technology, which allows making calls, sending emails, messages and surfing the Internet; while 37% already have 4G, which enables videoconferencing, downloading applications, surfing the Internet and using social networks.
Sisi de la Peña, director for Mexico and Central America of the Latin American Internet Association (ALAI), considers that the lack of coordination in digital matters will mean that people who access 3G technology will manage to migrate to 4G within five years and it will take up to 15 years to transition to 5G.
“Today there is no public policy in this regard and here the government is failing these people,” de la Peña said.
The technological transition could take up to two decades, or more, for the 11% of the population that owns phones with 2G services, with which it is only possible to call and send messages, according to data from the study ‘The Mobile Economy in Latin America 2021 ‘, prepared by the global organization GSMA.
At the moment, only people who have the purchasing power will be able to access 5G technology. A Smartphone compatible with the fifth network starts at 7,000 pesos, according to the manufacturers’ price lists.
Operators such as Telcel assure that even if they develop 5G, they will continue to operate 2G, 3G and 4G technologies, although this implies high maintenance costs and high energy consumption, especially in the second and third technologies.
But De la Peña assures that given the different realities of access to technology in the country, it is necessary for the government to define the bases of a national digital strategy, which seeks to reduce the gap in access to new connectivity technologies. “Only in this way will it be possible to migrate to new technologies,” says the director, who is also the regional manager of Digital Commerce for ALAI.
The expert emphasizes that the absence of a public policy, the disappearance of the Undersecretariat for Communications and Transportation and Technological Development -whose objective was to promote the deployment of infrastructure- and the lack of infrastructure in remote areas not only translates into a lag in terms of of connectivity but also of technological skills.
“I don’t think that in this six-year term we will have solved the problem of connectivity, but at least that the foundations are laid,” he adds.
Mexico drops positions in technological competitiveness at a global level
Other consequences that the lack of institutional organization in terms of connectivity has brought is the loss of technological competitiveness worldwide.
According to the world ranking of digital competitiveness 2021, which measures the capacity and willingness of 64 economies to adopt and explore digital technologies for the economic transformation of society, government and companies from the Institute for Management Development (IMD), Mexico fell two places, compared to 2020. The country moved to site 56 due to the drop in knowledge (talent, education and scientific concentration) and technology (regulatory frameworks, capital and technological framework).
Given this scenario, the Institute for Management Development recommended that the country work on effective regulatory frameworks for the adoption of technology.
