Beyond Salinas Gold, how is Nokia shaping the private network ecosystem across Latin America’s industrial sectors, from mining to energy and agribusiness?
Speaker: Renato Bueno, Head of Enterprise, Latin America, Nokia
The mining business has been the leading segment in Latin America for the last two years. Since around 2017, when the first networks were deployed in mining operations in Chile, all the way to very large deployments with Vale, for instance, in Brazil, the mining segment has been driving 4G and 5G private network deployments.
Several ports and the maritime segment have also largely adopted both 4G and 5G across the region. Large manufacturing players are involved as well, with cases like Jacto and many other solutions that have been deployed across Latin America.
Agribusiness is a very interesting scenario. For instance, Mato Grosso, the same region where Salinas Gold is represented, has connected millions of hectares. There, we have done significant ecosystem work together with ConectaAgro. Industrial players, application players, universities, institutions, and cloud players all come together to promote the most viable solutions. At the end of the day, it is not only about technology—it is about the full ecosystem and the usability of the solutions.
Another segment increasingly adopting private wireless solutions is the utility sector. In Brazil, for instance, 150 MHz has been assigned specifically for utilities. We see similar movements in Argentina, Chile, Bolivia, and Ecuador. Many utility players in Latin America are now investing in or exploring private LTE, both to improve automation in measurements and to automate their field operations.
