Closing the digital divide
The first session began with the speaker noting that one-third of humanity remains offline; closing the gap will require multi-trillion-dollar investment in infrastructure, skills, device and service affordability, and enabling policy. Progress, it was suggested, must be measured against ‘significant connectivity’, not mere coverage.
A second speaker argued that infrastructure alone does not close the gap; purpose-driven adoption does. In rural Boyacá, she noted, four ingredients are linked to local productive vocations – access networks, tailored digital skills, devices and sustainability.
An economist identified supply with the demand gaps of availability, affordability (the ‘two per cent of income’ affordability benchmark remains unmet in many countries), literacy and content relevance. His research showed the arrival of video-streaming platforms raised broadband adoption by about 13 per cent.
A competition specialist favoured demand-side subsidies over supply-side ones and warned that ex-ante platform regulation imported from advanced economies could stifle the region’s disruptive digital entrants (such as fintech) that have expanded inclusion.
Digital regulation
The session opened with an introduction reflecting on the cyclical nature of regulation – creation, expansion, resistance and renewal. What purposes does regulation serve, who benefits and how can outdated frameworks be rolled back without harming consumers?
Regulation should be grounded in evidence, said one speaker, and designed to give certainty, clarity and security in a volatile digital landscape. Regulators should intervene only where there is proven market failure and sometimes the best regulation is deregulation. Voluntary, collaborative models such as peering and CDN (content delivery network) deployment have delivered major investment and efficiency gains globally.
In Peru a structured programme of deregulation reduced the regulatory framework by 43 per cent by repealing obsolete rules and focusing on impact assessment, public consultation and post-regulatory review. Rules are withdrawn or re-evaluated within three years.
Another speaker called for technically independent regulators and warned against political interference. As new digital players enter, regulators face the challenge of understanding diverse business models and applying proportionate oversight that ensures fair conditions without stifling innovation.
A specialist in deregulation from Argentina reminded participants that regulation must stem from facts, not precede them. Argentina’s deregulation of satellite internet, which opened the market to Starlink and connected 250,000 new users without public funding, illustrated how pragmatic deregulation can directly improve citizens’ lives.
Sustaining an open internet
This breakout session explored global debates around sustaining an open internet while meeting the heavy investment demands of digital infrastructure.
The first speaker traced the controversial ‘fair share’ debate – proposals for large content providers to pay network fees to telecom operators. Europe’s regulators (BEREC) warned that such fees could undermine open internet principles, granting telcos termination monopolies and distorting competition.
Another panellist rejected the narrative that tech companies are bandwidth consumers, emphasising their growing role as infrastructure investors. Meta and other platforms have collectively invested more than $800 billion in data centres, submarine cables, CDNs and devices. These investments reduce telco costs and drive demand for broadband.
It was noted that Brazil’s highly distributed ecosystem of 22,000 local ISPs thrives on settlement-free peering. Introducing mandatory network fees would fragment this model and erode service quality. Internet regulation must respect the functional layers of the ecosystem – infrastructure, IP addressing and content – each governed by different dynamics.
Spectrum management
This session explored how regulators and operators can evolve spectrum management frameworks to meet rising connectivity demands, technological change and the pressures of preparing for WRC-27.
A speaker from Colombia’s National Spectrum Agency (ANE), outlined how Colombia is leveraging data to modernise its spectrum oversight. With a nationwide network of monitoring stations, ANE collects vast datasets that until recently went largely unused. While 675 MHz of spectrum is licensed for mobile services, in over 70 per cent of Colombian territory it remains unused, exposing the gap between assignment and utilisation.
The next speaker underscored spectrum’s centrality to connectivity and growth. She warned that ‘fiscal’ pricing models distort competition, arguing for cost structures that are tied to investment and coverage rather than revenue extraction.
Media pluralism
This session examined approaches to protect pluralism, ensure fair visibility for local content and respect user choice in an algorithm-driven environment.
A speaker described the challenge of ensuring visibility in an ecosystem dominated by algorithms. Public media, he said, must ‘tell the algorithm we exist’ by optimising metadata, structuring playlists strategically and forging alliances to reach fragmented audiences.
A panellist noted how Latin American regulators are experimenting with secondary markets to improve efficiency. Although eleven countries permit spectrum leasing or transfers, implementation is slow due to complex approvals and competition-law constraints.
Another speaker argued that 90 per cent of content visibility is concentrated in one per cent of creations. He urged the auditing of algorithms to avoid discrimination against local and independent works and called for joint human-AI curation models to sustain diverse creative employment.
A panellist from a regulatory body reflected on media pluralism as both access and representation. He highlighted the need for collaboration across ministries, regulators and civil society and for media literacy to build critical, informed audiences.
Digital security
This panel confronted the realities of cybersecurity in an era of deep digital dependence. The session moderator noted the recent global Amazon Web Services outage, which disrupted airlines and banks worldwide. Cloud infrastructure, she said, is now as critical as power or water and its failure can paralyse economies.
The internet’s founding architecture, a speaker noted, prized stability over security, leaving vulnerabilities that must now be managed through improved traceability and IPv6 deployment. IPv6 not only resolves the global shortage of addresses but restores accountability lost under IPv4, enhancing the ability to trace and respond to cyber incidents.
In the debate, it was pointed out that AI-generated agents now outnumber human identities in cyber attacks by 82 to 1. It was argued that users will only adopt technology if they trust it. Building this trust requires good governance, legal certainty and cooperation across government, the private sector and academia. Technology alone cannot ensure resilience.
Artificial intelligence
The session on AI governance opened with the question: why regulate AI and when? One speaker argued that regulation should enable adoption, not restrict it. Another view was that focusing only on control stifles innovation; countries that regulate through fear of risk ‘fall behind in competitiveness’. AI is already demonstrating real-world benefits, from accelerating protein design to driving economic growth and needs multistakeholder governance in which government, industry and civil society share responsibility.
Another speaker said that Latin American policymakers ‘are killing AI before it is born’ through poorly conceived bills. Instead of overregulating, governments should promote AI by investing in education and data openness. Regulation must be context-based, inclusive and balanced with innovation. The region’s challenge is to regulate to ensure that AI becomes a tool for development, creativity and social inclusion, and not a source of new divides.
Unlocking the benefits of low earth orbit satellites
This session explored how low earth orbit (LEO) satellite constellations are reshaping global connectivity and the regulatory frameworks that enable their growth.
Colombia’s 2022 satellite framework is now seen as a model for the region. The regime embraces technological neutrality, allowing geostationary, medium earth orbit and LEO systems, and introduces open skies and blanket licensing mechanisms that simplify market entry and reduce costs.
A panellist from a satellite service provider praised Colombia’s approach as a ‘checklist of best practices’: open market access, low licensing barriers and neutral, investment-friendly regulation. He urged revisiting limits on power flux density to improve spectral efficiency, potentially increasing LEO system capacity by up to 180 per cent without compromising geostationary operations.
Another speaker stressed that regulation must solve real market failures, not create new barriers. She advocated for technology- and competition-neutral frameworks and warned that connectivity must be environmentally and socially sustainable, addressing Latin America’s deep inequalities.
The final speaker described Chile’s own modernization process. With 343 of 345 municipalities connected via fibre, LEO systems now fill gaps in isolated islands and in agricultural regions, where small ISPs and community networks use satellites to deliver essential rural connectivity.
Monetising 5G
This session examined how 5G can fulfil its promise of economic growth and why monetisation remains its greatest challenge.
It was noted that 5G was the first mobile generation ‘where policy was ahead of technology’. Governments competed to be ‘first’ before clear business models had emerged.
Uruguay was the first Latin American nation to launch commercial 5G, supported by widespread fibre and balanced public–private competition. With 700,000 active 5G terminals in a population of 3.5 million, the country expects 65 per cent mobile penetration by 2030 but still grapples with monetisation and rural coverage.
In Colombia, spectrum costs and financial strains on operators left some licences unclaimed. While one major operator has achieved 90 per cent of its coverage obligations, others lag behind. It was noted that only one per cent of Colombia’s national territory currently has 5G coverage, though it reaches about 27 per cent of the population. More investment-oriented policies were needed in order to close digital gaps and enable broader adoption.
Vendors focused on transforming the business model, arguing that 5G must not replicate 4G strategies. Operators should shift from mass connectivity to differentiated services, especially for enterprise and industrial users.
Data governance
The purpose of this session was to explore the evolution of data governance across Latin America, highlighting emerging legislative reforms, cross-border transfer mechanisms and the wider societal context in which data rights are being defined.
The first speaker gave an overview of Colombia’s proposed statutory reform to modernise its data protection law. The bill is minimalist by design, with fewer than 20 articles, but rooted in constitutional principles, especially the ‘habeas data’ tradition that centres the individual’s control over their information. The aim is not to copy Europe’s GDPR but refine its own hybrid model, blending constitutional rights, elements of European and US approaches and local jurisprudence.
Brazil’s regulator has created a suite of mechanisms for international data transfers: adequacy decisions, standard contractual clauses, equivalent foreign clauses, exceptional customised clauses and binding corporate rules. A streamlined digital process allows companies to seek approval within months. Brazil aims for global interoperability, seeking adequacy with the EU and UK, while tailoring implementation to national realities, such as diverse state-level contexts and major internal data flows.
Another speaker argued that two issues dominate current reform: extraterritoriality, requiring foreign companies to comply with local law, and local representation, ensuring users can exercise rights against global platforms. It was noted that Latin America lacks a unified regime for cross-border transfers; mechanisms vary from safe-country lists to case-by-case authorisations.
Fostering trust online
The final session of the conference examined one of the most complex issues in today’s digital ecosystem: how to create a safe, trusted online environment while preserving openness, innovation and fundamental rights.
The discussion opened with a speaker from a major retailer, who said that that trust is core to digital trade. Security on the platform is governed by a multilayered, proactive model: robust ‘know your customer’ checks, extensive AI-driven moderation, strict rules on prohibited products and clear mechanisms for reporting infringements.
It was stressed that governments alone cannot resolve online harms. Public policies must involve families, educators, platforms and children themselves. There were warnings against legislative trends that outsource judicial functions to regulators or impose content-based restrictions that risk undermining freedom of expression. Effective policy must protect without excluding young people from digital opportunities.
This reported was drafted using ChatGPT.
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