Talking Latin

Edmundo Poggio, director of regulatory affairs at Telecom Argentina, speaks ahead of his participation in a panel session on day one of the Broadband World Forum in September.

What are the biggest challenges facing the mobile broadband market as a whole right now?

The lack of spectrum and the difficulties in the deployment of infrastructure caused by environmental problems.

To what extent do you see next generation wireless technologies such as LTE a threat or a complementary opportunity to fixed line?

They are definitely not a threat. Each of these technologies needs the others in order to reach the future consumer demands. Operators will have to deploy more fibre, so they have the chance to get smaller cells.

Is there a genuine demand for faster speeds such as 100Mb and beyond?

Not today. But the demand will arise, mainly carried by cloud and video services. Let´s not forget that it will take some years for NGA and LTE deployments to be commercialised.

Alternatively, will carriers be able to meet demand for data from businesses and consumers with existing technologies over the next five years?

Yes, but not in all regions, not to all customers. Thus, carriers will focus their investments on territories or services where they expect a higher demand or where they face competition.

There’s clearly pressure on operators to continually upgrade networks to keep pace with technology developments. But how does this balance with ROI?

ROI has become the main goal in recent years. The consequences are cost savings and investment constraints. So, these upgrades will be strictly related to the possibility of showing a favourable business case.

Is it likely that the days of the unlimited data bandwidth bundle are numbered and how will you deal with the customer fall out?

For mobile services I agree. I’m not so sure in fixed markets with strong competition.

What are your thoughts on a tiered internet service provision?

I don´t see the possibility for discrimination between different types of content as something that will become standard practice in the near future. Nevertheless, I foresee the possibility of QoS agreements between major content providers and network operators as something that will become normal soon.

Large companies that drive huge amounts of traffic should contribute by paying according to the amount of traffic they deliver and the services they receive from Carriers, like CDN services.

In Finland a broadband connection is a legal right. To what extent do you think the state should be involved in the roll-out of mobile broadband, and what’s your view of the need to reach remote areas?

Most of the states worldwide are involved in the roll out of NGA and Universal Services. In my view, the USA case is a good example. They are betting for wireless access as a solution for reaching their goals, not only in remote areas. For that reason,  they are pushing to free more spectrum and are allocating additional funds to ease the deployment of these technologies.