Dominican Republic third Latin American country to implement 5G technology

SANTO DOMINGO. -The Dominican Republic is the third country in Latin America and the first in Central America to implement 5G technology, a network that brings the advantages of high speed, broadband up to 20 gigabits per second, having up to one million devices connected per square kilometer and one millisecond of latency (response time), indicated Henry De Dios, director of Engineering at Claro Dominicana.

During the first forum5G technology and its impact on Dominican Development”, made by the Instituto Tecnológico de Santo Domingo (INTEC), the expert said that when the pandemic began, data traffic grew by 40% and the internet of things influenced the increase in devices connected to the network, and by 2030 it is estimated that there will be 38,600 billion devices connected.

To support device traffic, the Claro executive stressed that it is necessary to have cloud services, have artificial intelligence applications, bring fiber optics to all the plants and have 5G technology, the only mobile communication technology that supports a million connected devices.

Regarding the difficulties of 5G to grow in the country, he mentioned the high cost of terminals, reducing tariffs on devices, higher energy consumption for the operator and the permits required by radio bases. In addition, he mentioned that Claro Dominicana is the first telephone company to implement 5G in the country.

Meanwhile, Elly Santana, a Huawei expert, pondered that 5G technology came to allow hyperconnectivity, to have connections from a large number of devices at a higher speed and with lower latency.

The Huawei expert considered that 5G inspires the development of new applications and services for the manufacturing, public services, construction, finance, professional services, medicine, agriculture, transportation and education industries. Explaining what it was designed for, he said it was to meet the high-speed, massive connection wireless needs of industries.

Santana stated that globally there are more than 200 5G networks, more than 700 million users and 614 5G smart devices. In addition, fixed wireless services have grown by 89% between 2020 and 2021, the price of mobile devices is trending downwards and by 2023 devices are expected to reach a price of 100 dollars.

During the event, Alliet Ortega, vice-rector for Administration and Finance at INTEC, said that, from the academy as part of its commitment, in conjunction with the government, business and association sectors, it presents the academic community and Dominican society with the first forum dedicated to the analysis of 5G technology and its impact on the country.

Ortega considered that taking a step forward in the implementation of 5G should be considered as a transversal economic boost, since this speed and reliability of the connection is going to be a key piece in the digital transformation of society and the economy.

In this sense, Manuel Mendoza, professor and coordinator of the National Observatory of Information and Communication Technologies (ONTIC-RD), emphasized that the challenge for the Dominican Republic is to know how to take advantage of technology to generate productive things for the country.  

On his side, Félix Jáquez, director of Compliance and Administrative Sanctioning Procedures of the Dominican Institute of Telecommunications (INDOTEL), explained that the COVID-19 pandemic was what motivated the State to accelerate the implementation of 5G technology. “It is precisely this reality when distance education, distance work is needed; that then we found that the networks that we understood to be relatively well, are totally saturated because they were not designed for these purposes”.

During the activity, the panels "Conversation on the factors that enable 5G to be used for Dominican development", "Learn about the experiences and plans for the use of 5G technology for Dominican development" and "Learn about the development needs of the Dominican communities" were held. capabilities to enhance the adoption and use of 5G”.

You can see the full forum through the following link: https://youtu.be/VWRDqf-yYYI