The Peruvian Ministry of Transport and Communications (MTC) has announced continued enhancements in its drive to expand mobile coverage in rural areas.
Working with mobile operators, MTC says it has begun activating base stations in populated areas of the country that currently do not have internet and mobile telephony services.
The context is a coverage fee regime. This means the country’s four mobile operators can allocate up to 40 percent of the payment they must make for the use of spectrum to investment commitments to install 4G antennas in areas where there is no type of service.
In this way MTC says it will be possible to reach 136 populated centres in 18 regions of Peru. That’s more than 38,000 people benefiting – for the first time – from access to and use of the internet and mobile telephony services.
It’s described as “a collaborative strategy between the public and private sectors that will allow us to reach the most remote areas, changing the lives of thousands of people”, by the general director of Communications Programs and Projects, Luis Fernando Castellanos.
A few weeks ago, the Minister of Transport and Communications, Juan Francisco Silva, participated in the activation of two of the new base stations in Cajamarca and Yauyos, allowing the population centres of Number Ocho and Vilca to have internet service for the first time.
Cajamarca (with 21 towns), Cusco (15) and Apurimac (15) are the regions with the highest number of rural towns benefiting from new antennas with 4G technology.