translated from Spanish: Challenges and progress in digital connectivity

at the end of February this year was unveiled that Chile climbed five places in the ranking of the Organization for cooperation and economic development (OECD) in terms of penetration mobile access to Internet.De this way, access grew by 23.7% in the period of one year (between June of 2017 and June 2018). In terms of penetration, this is equivalent to moving from 75.2 mobile connections per 100 inhabitants to 91.9, in the same period. Thus, the country reached 17 million subscriptions and advanced place 26 to 21 in a year. That Yes, fixed broadband accesses per 100 inhabitants increased 4.3% year on year, with a penetration of 17 access that is distant from the 31 accesses per 100 inhabitants, which gives the average of OECD countries. For this reason, the Undersecretary for telecommunications, Pamela Gidi, considered, “even though the numbers indicate that we are moving forward, still is not enough. Today the digital divide, that holding 44% of households in the country without fixed Internet connection is still a harsh reality for many Chileans and that is accentuated in the case of rural and extreme”accurate. Major CONCRETOSLas projects needs speak of the deployment of connectivity that allows to reduce the digital divide in Chile. In that sense, “President Piñera already announced the construction of a digital road of high speed that will encourage companies to invest in areas that currently do not provide services for various technical reasons. This digital road is the necessary incentive for companies to invest in new cities and towns, whereas is the State who will carry out the investment of the backbone”, specifies Gidi.A it adds that the Government is creating policies public that they encourage new private investment and facilitate investments private as advertised, as Prat de GTD project: cable that seeks to install a network of fiber optic submarine of 3,500 kilometres between Arica and Puerto Montt, which will have seven points of contact in different cities of the country and believes an investment of US $200 million. It is followed by the fiber optic cable from Google that will link Valparaíso to San Francisco (United States); the construction of fiber optic network Reuna; optical fiber interconnection with other countries of Latin America, and the project of submarine cable that will connect Chile with Asia, which will turn the country into digital door to the region for the Asian continent and will require an investment of about US $600 million. FIBER optics AUSTRALUno of the commitments of the Authority’s shift is with optical fiber networks to almost all the communes, in a project called national optical fiber, which includes subsidiables projects of 10,000 kilometers. They insist that digital infrastructure is fundamental for national connectivity to more than 95% of access and coverage from the Chilean Association of companies of information (ACTI) technology. “Of course, we have seen progress in recent years, as a band of 700 MHz to 4 G services, the project of fiber optic Austral (FOA) between Puerto Montt and Punta Arenas by US $100 million” mentioned. It is that “this project will allow about 30% of the national territory to achieve substantial improvements in digital connectivity and will add value and importance to the economic and productive sectors of the extreme regions”, the secretariat gives an account of Telecommunications.

Original source in Spanish