Latin America
Slow but steady
progress in
Latin America
Investment in critical
The critical communications market in Latin America has suffered from the impact of past
global and regional socio-economic factors, but it is showing welcome signs of recovery in
both the public and commercial sectors, as James Atkinson reports
communications in Latin America
and the Caribbean has been hit by
a number of external and internal
factors in recent years, reecting
“the wider geopolitics and nancial
health of the region”, observes Ryan
Darrand, senior analyst II, critical
communications at IHS Markit.
“All Latin American economies
and markets depend on sales of raw
materials,” explains Oscar Fernandez
Feito, general manager Mexico at
Hytera LATAM. “e 2007-08 global
economic crisis meant there was a
slowdown in manufacturing in China.
We have been suering from the eects
of this downturn for the last 10 years.”
Pablo Orsei, SVP for South Latin
America at Motorola Solutions,
agrees. “Budgets are still tight on the
government side, although there are
some exceptions, like Chile. In some
countries, uncertainty over who is
going to be the next president can
aect trust in the country, while
currency exchange uctuations have
made things very dicult.”
Governments have cut budgets
for many projects as a result and
this matters to vendors, because as
Darrand points out: “e public
sector is the main investor in critical
communications by quite a large
margin, so there is a large reliance on
government spending.”
“e protection of life is the most
important driver,” says Gilson Pozzati,
regional manager for DAMM, who
argues that the emergency services
need fast, ecient and reliable radio
communications systems such as only
LMR can provide.
It can, however, be too dangerous to
implement LMR systems, as Fernandez
Feito points out. “Underdeveloped
areas are controlled by criminal gangs,
where the police are unable to go, so
you cannot install the infrastructure.”
Latin America also faces a high
incidence of natural disasters. Manmade
disasters caused by incidents like
the recent dam collapse in Brazil only
add to the problems.
Commercial sector
Demand for critical communications
in the commercial sector is led by the
two largest economies of Brazil and
Mexico. Brazil saw a major investment
in rail/metro and stadia in the run-up
to the 2014 FIFA World Cup and 2016
Olympics, and this is continuing.
Hytera secured a contract in
January to provide a TETRA radio
system for the metro of Porto Alegre,
Brazil. But Cobham Wireless’s Sedas
believes there are not many really
big projects around at the moment.
“It’s mostly enhancements to existing
projects. Adding a new line to a metro
system, that sort of thing. e bigger
e region is not the largest market
for critical communications, but it
is still an important one. An ABI
Research report in 2018 ranked it
fourth behind North America, Asia
Pacic and Europe.
Investment challenges
Venezuela is the most extreme example
of political instability, but other
countries have suered too. Hebert
Sedas, VP of Coverage Sales Americas
at Cobham Wireless, points to the
impeachment of President Dilma
Rousse of Brazil in 2016 and the
fallout from the Odebrecht cashfor
contracts corruption scandal.
“Investment went way down and a lot
of projects were put on hold in Brazil
and elsewhere,” says Sedas.
Elton Borgonovo, VP and country
manager for Motorola Solutions Brazil,
adds: “We have a new government now
that is focused on public safety and
economic reforms.”
e size of the region and the nature
of its terrain make implementation of
critical networks a daunting prospect.
Nonetheless, the need for critical
communications is pressing and
without question the main stimulus
for investment is security. “Latin
America has eight of the top 10 cities
for murder rates,” points out Darrand,
while guerrilla wars and terrorist
attacks are still a problem in places.
10 www.criticalcomms.com March 2019
/www.criticalcomms.com