Chinese-American JV ChinaTel is looking to expand in Argentina, Chile, Guatemala and Honduras, according to the company’s VP of Strategic Operations, Ryan Alvarez.
In a statement, he said that the infrastructure firm has a 95% stake in Perusat, which is…
Chinese-American JV ChinaTel is looking to expand in Argentina, Chile, Guatemala and Honduras, according to the company’s VP of Strategic Operations, Ryan Alvarez.
In a statement, he said that the infrastructure firm has a 95% stake in Perusat, which is currently implementing a 4G network in Peru together with Chinese equipment vendor ZTE. ChinaTel expects to deploy its WiMAX technology in seven Peruvian cities in the initial stage of its roll-out.
Speaking to TelecomFinance, he elaborated: ChinaTel has been approached to work in many countries in Latin America, and said it is now involved in negotiations in Argentina, Honduras, Chile and Guatemala, without providing further details.
Specifying how any further acquisitions in Latin America would be funded, he said that Canada’s Isaac Organization, a private investment firm, backs ChinaTel through a stock purchase agreement of US$640m.
ChinaTel also has an agreement with ZTE under which it only has to pay a 15% on equipment purchases, with ZTE financing the rest.
ChinaTel has been targeting emerging markets for growth. Alvarez said that 4G was “best utilised” for emerging markets because of its relative lack of expense (comparing to laying miles of fibre).
Describing ChinaTel as “technology agnostic”, Alvarez said that its networks could combine both WiMAX and LTE, or focus on either of them.
