WCA January 2015

Telecom news

statistics showing that 62 per cent of Chilean households have an Internet connection. This is 12 percentage points below the average in the 34 member-countries of the Paris- based OECD (Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development) but 27 percentage points above the South American average. In urban areas of Chile, 65 per cent of households have Internet; in rural areas, 40 per cent. To broaden coverage, the government has rolled out initia- tives including its 2.6Ghz and 700Mhz programmes, which together will reach more than 1,700 isolated communities and over 500 schools. The WiFi ChileGob programme will also provide free Internet connections to an additional 543 communities and introduce a fibre optic service in Chile’s southernmost zone. Ø President Barack Obama said on 9 th October that the United States is “unequivocally committed” to net neutrality – the requirement that broadband network providers be altogether detached from what information is sent over their networks. At a town hall meeting in California, Mr Obama said his administration would make cer- tain that net neutrality remains untouched. “It’s what has unleashed the power of the Internet,” he said. “And we don’t want to lose that or clog up the pipes.” Mr Obama’s statements to a group of tech entrepreneurs in the start-up community in Santa Monica strongly signalled to the Federal Communications Commission that it must heed the overwhelming public sentiment expressed in 3.7 million comments received by the commission. A large majority of those comments, solicited by the FCC, came out against Internet fast lanes – the practice known as paid prioritisation.

mobile Internet is the future of telecommunication,” said CEO Hoang Quoc Quyen. Although Viettel has 68 million customers in 10 countries, Peru is the first of its overseas markets to have a considerably higher GDP than Vietnam. The company has a presence in Cambodia, Laos, Timor, Haiti, Mozambique and Cameroon, and is preparing to expand into Burundi and Tanzania. Ø With the launch of Arsat-1 on 16 th October, Argentina became the first Latin American nation to build and operate a geostationary satellite. Arsat-1 will be “parked” over Argentina but will enable coverage of Argentina, Chile, Paraguay, Uruguay, the Malvinas Islands, and Argentine bases in the Antarctic. Rural areas within its orbit will benefit from improved Internet access and data, telephone and television services. As noted in the Buenos Aires Herald (17 th October), some 400 specialists have worked on Arsat-1 since 2006. Geostationary satellites are considered the most complex to develop and operate as they are required to orbit at the same speed as the earth while maintaining sufficient distance to transmit over a wide area. The first in a series of three satellites for the Argentine Geostationary Satellite Tele- communications System, Arsat-1 was designed for a working life of 15 years. Its estimated cost is $270 million. Ø According to a study reported in Business News Americas in October, two-thirds of Chileans – some 12 million people – consider themselves regular Internet users, and the proportion was expected to reach 70 per cent of the population by the end of 2014. A survey conducted by Universidad de Chile and government researchers produced

As reported in TeleGeography (17 th October), Ciena is supplying optical transport equipment based on its GeoMesh undersea cable portfolio, as well as retaining the responsibility for project management and integration. The 9,320-mile EIG runs from Britain to India, connecting 12 countries across three continents. The first phase of the 100G upgrade saw installation of the Ciena 6500 packet-optical transport system on the link between the UK and Djibouti, while the second stage will introduce 100G connectivity through to India. Ø Discussing Trinidad and Tobago’s telecommunications industry, the country’s science and technology minister said that – at 146 per cent in 2013 – mobile penetration in the Caribbean nation off the coast of Venezuela is among the world’s highest. As reported by Leah Sorias in the Trinidad Express (10 th October), Dr Rupert Griffith also noted that, in 2014, the World Economic Forum Global IT Report ranked Trinidad and Tobago first among 148 countries in mobile network coverage. “And we expect domestic broadband penetration to reach 98 per cent by 2018,” Dr Griffith told delegates to the Americas Competitiveness Forum held on 9 th October in the capital, Port of Spain. To that end, Trinidad and Tobago will soon select a third mobile operator from among four companies that have applied for a concession and licence: Cable and Wireless, Columbus Communications Trinidad, Star Mobile Caribbean, and Telesur. Ø Viettel Group on 15 th October announced the launch of its Bitel mobile network in Peru. The Vietnamese telecom said that Bitel is the first mobile operator with a 3G-only network in Peru, with Internet mobile coverage in 80 per cent of the nation. “In such a highly competitive market with a density close to 100 per cent penetration,

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Wire & Cable ASIA – January/February 2015