Snapshot: Movistar Chile's 5G business strategy

Movistar Chile will start its 5G service focused on mobile internet and then evolve with business solutions.

The company has just launched operations of the autonomous 5G network in Chile and expects to have 400 active base stations by January 2022.

"This means an increase in the capacity for users to enjoy faster internet, even in places with high congestion, and along with it lower latency or response time of the network," Fernando Saiz (pictured), Movistar Chile’s director of public affairs, told BNamericas in an emailed statement.

The company developed 5G experience laboratories, together with universities and technology partners Nokia, Huawei and Ericsson.

"We are motivated and convinced that important solutions for the industry will result from these research and development spaces," said Saiz.

Movistar eyes opportunities in telemedicine, especially for rural areas, and automation of industries, the mining sector, and ports, in addition to smart and autonomous vehicles.

The company is developing private solutions with large clients, especially in the mining industry. “We are confident that 5G will accelerate the adoption of these networks in other industries,” Saiz said.

But Said discarded the development of fixed-wireless access (FWA) solutions. “Our vision is to reach homes with fiber optics, and for now, we don't see FWA as a mass service.”

He highlighted that almost all 5G antennas are interconnected through a fiber optics transport network.

5G deployment of over 1,500 sites will be complemented by the 24,000km of fiber optics network across Chile, including public-private projects such as the FON network and the Austral fiber network.

In the last spectrum tender, Movistar Chile presented the most attractive economic offer, of 117bn pesos (US$160mn), which translates into a project five times larger than deployments after the 4G tenders.

Movistar is rolling out 5G in conjunction with Nokia and Huawei.

The company is also analyzing demand for and feasibility of open RAN for upcoming deployments.