Análisis del despliegue de la 5G y sus tecnologías emergentes en América Latina

Abstract

This article analyzes 5G deployment and emerging technologies in Latin America through a documentary review of scientific literature, technical reports, and institutional sources published between 2021 and 2025. A qualitative, descriptive-analytical approach was used to characterize regional progress, identify enabling technologies, recognize use cases, and examine barriers related to spectrum, infrastructure, investment, and regulation. The information was organized through extraction matrices and thematic categories associated with commercial deployment, private networks, the digital ecosystem, sectoral applications, and adoption conditions. The findings show a heterogeneous regional process: Brazil, Chile, and Uruguay display higher relative maturity in deployment, pilots, or application ecosystems, while other countries advance through spectrum allocation, technical trials, public-private partnerships, and targeted projects. The emerging technologies most closely associated with 5G include massive MIMO, software-defined networking, virtualization, edge computing, network slicing, the internet of things, artificial intelligence, and private industrial networks. The main use cases are concentrated in industry, healthcare, education, logistics, agriculture, smart cities, and rural connectivity. It is concluded that 5G is a strategic infrastructure for Latin American digital transformation, although its impact will depend on efficient spectrum policies, sustained investment, fiber-optic expansion, technical capacity building, and the reduction of territorial gaps.