Chilean telecom regulator Subtel is considering auctioning the 700 MHz band for LTE, the Minister of Telecommunications, Pedro Pablo Errazuriz, said during the 37th Plenary Meeting of the GSMA Latin America. The meeting is held in Chile, gathering about 250 members from 30 Latin American carriers.
According to Subtel, the 700 MHz band could promote greater economies of scale to develop access to devices and terminals. It is the standard band for LTE in the Asian-Pacific region.
Subtel’s head, Jorge Atton, said there is a need to provide better services. “The country needs an Internet penetration on a much higher and widespread basis to connect to more remote areas of the country and to include all citizens in the knowledge and information society,” Atton said in statement.
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The executive secretary of digital development in Chile, Oliver Flögel, said the range of the 700 MHz band is a good alternative with which to deploy mobile Internet services in the country and to cover large areas. “What we are doing as Subtel is to see how best to allocate and divide that spectrum to promote mobile technologies in our country,” Flögel noted in press release.
Chile is currently deploying 4G networks, which is critical to the development of telecommunications and, in particular, to provide higher quality mobile Internet services.
At the conference, Errazuriz called upon the domestic industry to work toward developing less expensive and higher quality access to broadband services, enabling Chile to recover “a leading position … to the benefit of all Chileans.”
Errazuriz noted the penetration of mobile broadband has tripled, increasing from 13.7% in March 2010 to almost 30% in March 2012. Also, at the household level, it increased from 37% to 50%. The government’s goal is to reach 70% of households with Internet access by 2014 and to increase mobile Internet penetration to 33%.
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