The increasing importance of digital connectivity has led governments to include connectivity as a priority item in their policy agendas and infrastructure plans. In general, telecoms infrastructure deployment depends on national government policy and on local and regional government policies, because local authorities normally have the constitutional competence to regulate urban planning issues.

Mobile infrastructure deployment

In order to provide their services, mobile operators need to build the antennas that provide coverage in urban or rural areas.

All countries in the Americas seek to streamline the deployment of mobile infrastructure to guarantee service provision for all the population. Governments have taken several supporting initiatives to guarantee service provision, in particular:

• ‘antenna’ laws’: to speed up the issuing of permits by local authorities;
• codes of best practice or guidelines: so that local governments apply the same technical and regulatory conditions to mobile network installations;
• rankings: to measure those towns or areas with better quality of service, a better signal, more antennas, fewer service blackouts, etc; and
• making available public land and buildings for the installation of antennas.

Fibre deployment

Recognising that fibre deployment is critical for both fixed and mobile connectivity, governments in the Americas established specific initiatives to promote fibre deployment in backbone, transport and access networks. In addition to their general national broadband plans, governments and regulators also set initiatives to promote fibre in:

• backbone and transport networks: including obligations to build ducts or to roll out dark fibre alongside roads and bridges, and in pipes, as well as promoting the availability of the ducts and poles of public utilities companies; and
• access network: establishing rules to deploy fibre inside buildings.

This new research by Cullen International summarises different policies used in the Americas to facilitate the rollout of telecoms networks, including:

• general policies to ease network rollout;
• measures to promote the building of sites for mobile antennas; and
• measures adopted to facilitate the building of fibre networks.

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