Uruguay’s state-owned telecommunications company hopes to start laying the foundation of an LTE network this year, but in the meanwhile has established a number of low-cost programs to bringt wireless connecitivity to the masses, according to a company leader at the second day of Informa’s LTE Latin America conference in Rio de Janeiro, Brazil.
ANTEL is currently conducting limited LTE trials and hopes to start making purchases this year to build a future LTE network, said Humberto Roca, CTO of ANTEL. The ultimate commercial launch date will depend on acquiring the necessary frequencies. Roca said the company will start in small hotspots and low frequencies, and will watch where the market is going throughout the continent.
“We can’t ask for multi-band terminals everywhere. Purchases will be made for the networks, and there are areas of the country where we must replace radio bases for LTE networks (in rural areas),” he said.
Ultimately, LTE isn’t the sole basis with which ANTEL will base its success. The company’s focus is developing a range of services that any and all of its users can find helpful.
ANTEL has rolled out a social program named CEIBAL, for which the goal is one laptop for every child in the country’s public schools. More than 2,000 schools have already been connected with broadband, and 500,000 basic notebooks have been distributed.
Another program focused on connecting every residence with the Internet at prices they can afford offers a free ADSL connection at the most basic, low-velocity level for US$20 per month. The company is also working to revamp connections in Montevideo for business and residential via optic fiber installation.
A separate project has given 1,500 public hospital doctors a free notebook that is linked in to a national database of health information, which will allow doctors from the city share tips with their peers in the countryside.