Spotlight: Entel's network investments in Bolivia

Bolivian state-owned telco Entel has had a busy couple of months, making a number of announcements on the modernization and expansion of its network infrastructure.

The company's investments are intended to expand the coverage of mobile and fiber optic networks, especially in rural areas, as well as modernizing radio base stations with 4G technology.

This week Entel announced that it modernized 346 base stations in more than 1,600 localities around the country between December 2020 and November 8, 2021. Of these, 341 are in rural areas and five in urban areas.

Entel specified that 79 base stations were updated in La Paz department to improve the quality of internet services, while 56 were upgraded in Cochabamba department and 53 in Santa Cruz.

It has also taken voice and mobile internet services to towns that previously lacked coverage, such as Carlos Machicado, in Potosí department, among others. 

In the company's last accounts, with data from end-2020, Entel reported having 9,301 base stations in Bolivia, of which 4,374 were HSPA and only 1,884 LTE. Its mobile service coverage reached 18,996 locations.

At the time, the company committed to adding another 103 base stations in the same number of localities with populations of between 50 and 2,000 inhabitants. 

The investments outlined for this project, which is due to end in September 2022, is 251mn bolivianos (US$35.5mn), with the funds coming from the national telecommunications and social inclusion program.

The company recently announced that it had reached 6mn mobile customers nationwide. The state company is the biggest mobile operator in the country, followed by Tigo and Viva.

FIBER OPTICS  

At the end of 2020, Entel had 24,755km of fiber optics, of which 16,379km were for long-distance services and 8,376km to access networks.

In recent months, Entel has made extensions to its fiber optic trunk network to connect new communities and provide mobile telephone base stations with greater capacity. The most recent announcement made was the construction of a line to the community of San Antonio El Mati in Pando department.

The company has also been working on extending its fiber to the home (FTTH) network.

The plan for 2021 was to take FTTH to 36 rural locations. At the end of 2020, the company had 116 localities connected with fiber optic networks.

During October Entel announced the extension of the network in four districts of Sucre, benefiting some 2,000 households. Investments were also announced in the city of Tarija and the town of Entre Ríos, as well as the expansion of the network in the rural area of Erquis.