Argentine provinces Jujuy and La Pampa advance with fiber optics

Argentine province Jujuy launched this week work to connect 350 schools and 135 localities with fiber optics, according to a release.

The US$67mn initiative, which is being carried out by state company Jujuy Digital Sapem, is financed with funds from the teacher training project Promace and is part of a project of Central American development bank Cabei to improve the education system.

The Cabei project envisages connecting 783 educational institutions to the internet, as well as building classrooms and acquiring equipment, among other things.

For the educational fiber network announced this week, the northwest province plans to build six backbone networks within nine months.

The infrastructure will be complemented by other networks already deployed in the province, such as the security network and the network of Jujuy Digital.

LA PAMPA

Central province La Pampa, meanwhile, completed a 100km project to close the northern ring of the provincial fiber optic network of state-owned company Empatel.

The infrastructure connects 36 localities in the north of the province, linking Santa Rosa with Carro Quemado.

In addition, network capacity is expected to increase by between 20% and 45%.

"We are reducing the cost of a megabyte by between 26% and 36%, generating, in addition, an increase in capacity and savings of between 5% and 20% depending on the provider and the amount of megabytes they buy from us," Empatel president Andrés Zulueta said in a release.

The provincial fiber optic network is a wholesale one that is available to the private sector, including cooperatives and SMEs. Claro, for example, uses its infrastructure to provide 4G services.

Of the 79 localities in the province, 44 are connected exclusively by Empatel.