At a press conference on Friday, the government of Chile outlined its plans to roll out broadband to rural areas in September.
The government, in collaboration with Entel, Chile’s second largest telco, are investing more than US$100m to create a…
At a press conference on Friday, the government of Chile outlined its plans to roll out broadband to rural areas in September.
The government, in collaboration with Entel, Chile’s second largest telco, are investing more than US$100m to create a broadband infrastructure away from the main cities. Work is scheduled to start at the beginning of September.
Felipe Morande, minister of Transport and Telecommunications said: “This is a historic change in the rural world and the greatest advance in connectivity and communication to remote areas in the past 20 years. It responds to the desire of President Sebastián Piñera to make Chile a fully developed and interconnected nation, leaving no one by the wayside.”
The rural rollout is set to coincide with the bicentennial celebrations of the Chilean republic.
The initiative will bring broadband to more than 450 rural villages in 15 regions, covering a population of more than 1.7 million people.
Entel won the contract last year to upgrade Chile’s broadband connectivity to 90% of the country, and received a US$45m government subsidy.
The project obliges Entel, which is deploying 3G technology with Swedish equipment supplier Ericsson, to guarantee minimum speeds of 1 Mbps, something that will be regulated by the government.
Jorge Atton, the head of Chile’s telecoms regulator, Subtel, told reporters that once the rural broadband plan is up and running, Chile’s government is confident that the monthly price of broadband across the country will drop to US$15 in two years.
