Puerto Rico ICT Watch: Claro 5G test; military contracts

América Móvil's Puerto Rico unit Claro will start testing its 5G capabilities in the island territory by mid-2019, the company's local CEO told media.

The network is expected to be 10-100 times faster than current mainstream 4G technology. The Mexico-based company will use Puerto Rico as the first test bed for the network across its global footprint, which includes most of Latin America and parts of Europe, Enrique Ortiz de Montellano was quoted as saying.

"Claro's 5G network will allow us to send Puerto Rico on the way to its new future, helping the development of new industries and the country's economic development," he added, according to local daily El Vocero.

América Móvil recently announced that it expects to end the year with US$250mn in investments on the island.

T-Mobile has also said that it expects to deploy 5G connectivity in Puerto Rico by 2020.

MILITARY CONTRACTS

Puerto Rico was also in the news as a slew of military contracts and projects were announced.

Xtera, a Texas-based subsea cable solutions company, announced the completion of deployment of a 1,400km cable between Puerto Rico and Guantánamo in Cuba, a contract with the US Defense Information Systems Agency (DISA), an agency of the country's Department of Defense, which operates a detention center on the island.

"The new system will be fully commissioned as scheduled in December and placed into service in early 2019," the firm said in a statement.

Also on the island, PAR Technology Corporation announced the that the US Navy awarded one of its units, Rome Research Corporation, a US$7.3mn contract for the maintenance of the Naval Radio Transmitter Facility (NRTF) and its Low Frequency (LF) Fixed Submarine Broadcasting System (FSBS) until August 2023.

The system "provides strategic and tactical communications to US and allied submarine forces in the Atlantic. NRTF Aguada is a remote facility under command of the Naval Computer and Telecommunications Area Master Station Atlantic (NCTAMS LANT)," the company said in a statement.