2024-03-23 23:33:14
Two years after launching the fifth generation, the company is carrying out this commercial deployment on the white continent at the same time as they commemorate 40 years since the inauguration of the Villa Las Estrellas base.
Through a video call between the Ministers of the Interior and Defense, Carolina Tohá and Maya Fernández, respectively, from La Moneda with the Minister of Transportation and Telecommunications, Juan Carlos Muñoz; the Undersecretary of the Armed Forces, Galo Eidelstein; and the general manager of Entel, Antonio Büchi, in Antarctica it was said that we are going to 5G arrives to the white continent.
“Connecting remote or isolated locations in our country has been in Entel’s DNA since its creation 60 years ago. Our purpose is to bring the infinite possibilities that technology gives to all Chileans and we are fulfilling it,” said Büchi.
This unprecedented connectivity is a key milestone in Entel’s deployment in this area, which previously had a 2G connection.
“Bringing 5G to Antarctica was a enormous challengeespecially in technical terms, and we are very proud to be able to affirm that we were pioneers in the world in delivering a public 5G network for our customers, especially in these times where connectivity and communication contribute tremendously to the quality of life of people. people, mainly in such geographically isolated places,” explained the general manager of Entel.
With this, the 191 residents in Villa Las Estrellas de la Antárticaas well as the visitors who travel year after year to this end of the planet that reaches 35 degrees below zero in winter.
The residents are mainly FACH military personnel and INACH professionals along with their families, who will be able to benefit from the latest generation network.
5G will bring with it a significant advance for daily life in this southern area, from operations and management on issues of logistics, transportation, communications, health and basic services, to advances for the scientific community that resides permanently or temporarily in Chilean Antarctica.
“We hope that this great milestone will allow for significant improvements in the connectivity of the white continent and important support for the community that works in this area and for the scientific activity which has a great presence in Antarctica,” said Büchi.
Minister Muñoz maintained that for all Chileans who are in these remote places marking the presence of the country “they will be able to have much better connectivity for their daily work, but also for research and also so that these people can have a better bond with their familieswith his friends on the continent,” he declared.
“The inhabitants of Villa la Estrellas told us how different it is for them now to be able to have a video conference, to be able to do homework with their children who are on the continent and in this way maintain a much closer bond,” he said.
Meanwhile, for the Undersecretary of Telecommunications, Claudio Araya, “today we celebrate that our territory, from end to end, is connected with 5G. The deployment of this technology brings closer the Chileans who make their homeland in Antarctica with their families and friends and passing through again positions Chile as a leader in the deployment of telecommunications technologies“.
Coverage on the white continent also included a modernization with 3G and 4G technologywhich allows a better experience and capacity at the base and required an investment of around USD $345 thousand.
This milestone is part of Entel’s commitment to delivering the best technology available in the territory, where there are already 315 communes from Putre to Antarctica, including Rapa Nuihave 5G connectivity.
Büchi specified that “in these few weeks of testing, the antenna traffics 28% of that of an average network antenna. It is a public network, so tourists and visitors that have an Entel chip and a compatible phone will be able to connect to the network most modern in these latitudes.”
He mentioned that “it is important to keep in mind that the browsing or network experience is not the same as on the continent, since the connection from Antarctica to the internet is done via satellite, which, although it is a type of satellite technology advanced, it has considerably lower capacities than fiber optics.”