The GSMA report stated that the region will see a 5G penetration of 11% by 2025
5G is forecast to reach 57% of the total mobile connections in Latin America in 2030, up from a current penetration of around 2%, according to a recent report by telecom association GSMA.
The GSMA report stated that the region will see a 5G penetration of 11% by 2025. By that point, 5G will have a double-digit share of total connections in five countries in the region: Chile, Brazil, Mexico, Uruguay and Argentina.
“In the second half of the decade, 5G adoption will ramp up quickly as new 5G markets go live and existing 5G networks expand to new areas,” GSMA said.
The report also noted that Latin America is behind other regions in terms of allocation of 5G spectrum by regulators. Three countries in Latin America–Brazil, Chile and Dominican Republic–have assigned spectrum for 5G services to operators as of the end of March, according to the report. “The situation should start to improve with several countries in Latin America set to auction 5G spectrum in 2023, including Costa Rica, Peru, Argentina, Uruguay, Mexico and Colombia,” the report stated.
As of March 2023, eight countries in Latin America had launched commercial 5G services. According to the report, 5G offered via different technologies are already available in parts of Brazil, Colombia, Argentina, Chile, Dominican Republic, Peru, Guatemala and Uruguay. The association noted that 5G is available in certain cities across Argentina via Dymanic Spectrum Sharing (DSS) technology, while operators in Colombia and Peru are offering 5G FWA technology.
“Operators in Latin America have invested $54 billion in mobile capex over the last five years – mostly on deploying and expanding 4G networks. The rollout of 5G networks across the region is expected to drive a slight increase in capex levels, but a spike is unlikely,” GSMA said.
As is the case globally, most initial 5G deployments in Latin America have used a NonStandalone (NSA) architecture. “5G networks in Brazil are a notable exception. 5G Standalone (SA) availability will increase in other parts of the region, however. GSMA Intelligence research shows that 55% of operators in Latin America with live 5G networks have announced plans to upgrade to 5G SA – in line with the global average.”
GSMA noted that the number of 5G SA networks in Latin America will rise as operators complete the first phase of 5G rollouts and shift their focus to enterprise use cases, driving interest in the customized network capabilities that network slicing can create.
5G subscriptions in Latin America are expected to reach 330 million by 2028, according to the latest edition of Ericsson’s Mobility Report.
Ericsson said that this expected figure will represent 42% of total mobile connections in Latin America by that year.
According to the report, there were around 7 million 5G subscriptions at the end of 2022. The vendor said that a more substantial uptake in the adoption of 5G in the region is expected from 2024 onwards.
