SIVALDO PEREIRA DA SILVA

University of Brasilia and Visiting Professor at the Nexa Center

Digital communication and information flows increasingly depend on complex physical and technical infrastructures, ranging from terrestrial and submarine backbones to data centers and satellite connectivity.

The rapid expansion of these infrastructures, intensified by the growing demands of artificial intelligence systems, has made them essential to contemporary economic, social, and political life. At the same time, their increasing concentration and dependence on foreign technologies, investments, and service providers raise important questions concerning economic and geopolitical tensions, state autonomy, and digital sovereignty. These dynamics are particularly relevant when comparing Latin America and Europe, which present distinct historical, economic, technological, and regulatory conditions.

This presentation introduces an ongoing research project being developed at the Nexa Center for Internet & Society, where the researcher is currently a visiting researcher. The project investigates the critical infrastructure supporting digital communication and information flows in six countries: Brazil, Argentina, and Mexico in Latin America, and Germany, France, and Italy in Europe. It adopts a comparative approach organized around three analytical dimensions: technical, economic, and regulatory, with particular attention to their implications for digital sovereignty.

The project proposes to map infrastructure capacities, ownership structures, market concentration, regulatory frameworks, and the role of public authorities in the selected countries. As the research is still at an initial stage, the presentation will focus primarily on its theoretical framework, research design, methodological approach, and analytical indicators. To illustrate the proposed approach, some preliminary data from the Brazilian case will also be presented, providing an initial empirical perspective without claiming consolidated findings.