International experts highlight the region's role as a global leader in data consumption and storage, driving significant advancements in telecommunications and cloud technology.
LatAm is one of today’s top hubs for data storage and consumption, argued Daniel Torras, Partner at Altman Solon, in a conversation shared with telecommunications industry experts at LINKS 2024.
The global consumption of data keeps on growing. Estimates place global data consumption for the year 2024 at around 160 zettabytes. This number is hard to conceptualize: one zettabyte can store 35 trillion songs, it is 50 million times Spotify’s complete catalog, and it amounts to a 240 million year-long Zoom conversation.
Meanwhile, hyperscalers like Google, Microsoft, and Meta, are expected to double their megawatts consumption by 2028.
Torras offered an even more astounding figure about our age: 90% of the information in humanity's history has been generated in the last two years.
“Who is responsible for this?” asked Torras. “To a great extent, LatAm.”
Multiple studies show that LatAm is an avid data consumer, with some 9 to 10 hours per capita of daily data consumption and smartphone usage that vastly surpasses global averages.
Leapfrogging is crucial to LatAm’s uniqueness in the field of telecommunications and explains why this region is such an early adopter of cutting-edge innovation. “For many years, I would talk to ISPs, and they would tell me that 5G in Latin America was impossible,” Torres said. “Maybe in ten, fifteen years. Two years later, fifteen countries in the region already have 5G.” Currently, there are 60 million 5G users in LatAm.
This is partially due to a vibrantly competitive market. Take Brazil, where there are between 9 to 10 thousand Internet Service Providers and a plethora of open-source Internet providers that lease their capacity to third parties. This model is not exclusive to Brazil, but to LatAm as a whole: Peru, Chile, Panama, and many other countries in the region are also favoring a decentralized approach to digital infrastructure.
“Any of us, if we wanted, could open up an ISP tomorrow in Latin America. Without creating a network of our own, but by relying on these neutral operators and open-source providers.”
Cloud usage is also booming in LatAm, with more companies using externalized options than in Europe and the US. Cybersecurity remains a big concern in the region, which will afford great opportunities to savvy entrepreneurs in this sector.
The US is no longer the leading hub for data centers. Panama, with its geographical advantage as an intermediate point for data traffic, is an increasingly attractive country for data centers. The same could be said of Querétaro, one of the hubs for data in Mexico.
There were many insights and quotable figures at Torras’s talk, but perhaps none more important than the note on which he ended his presentation: “The telecom market is going South.”
ABOUT LIBERTY NETWORKS
Liberty Networks is a leading infrastructure and enterprise connectivity provider in Latin America and the Caribbean, connecting approximately 40 countries with nearly 50,000 kilometers of submarine fiber optic cable and 17,000 kilometers of terrestrial networks. At Liberty Networks, we partner with enterprises, carriers, and business communities, leveraging our expansive network infrastructure, next-generation solutions portfolio, and data center network to provide a solid foundation that enables business success across the region. To learn more about Liberty Networks, visit www.libertynetworks.com, and follow us on LinkedIn, X, and YouTube.
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