Telsur earmarks US$12mn for broadband

Chilean telco Telefónica del Sur (Telsur) plans to invest US$12mn this year to boost its broadband and packaged services, local press quoted Telsur commercial manager Víctor Engelbreit as saying. This year's strategy is based in the broadband sector, which is expected to represent 15% of total revenues compared to 10% during 2004. The company closed 2004 with nearly 26,000 broadband users and expects to increase the client base by 45% this year. In this area, Telsur plans to focus on the development of its wireless internet service Innet, mostly because costs related to wireless broadband are nearly 35% lower than internet through cables. Telsur now has over 1,000 clients using its wireless internet services. The second part of the strategy is an alliance with satellite TV carrier DirecTV, which should improve Telsur's competitiveness against the dominant cable operator that will emerge from the merger of VTR and Metrópolis. Telsur and DirectTV have launched a new service called 4fullsur that includes telephony, cable TV, broadband and alarm services. The service is now available in three southern cities and the operator plans to expand it to four others.