Claro Argentina has signed a collaboration deal with Empatel, an Argentinean service provider based in the remote La Pampa province.
The alliance will see the firms sharing fibre optic networks as well as jointly deploying 4G in areas where coverage is unavailable in the sparsely populated province.
Created in 2019, Empatel is 51% owned by La Pampa’s provincial government, with remaining stakes held by local private companies (4%), local cooperatives (35%) and Aguas del Colorado SAPEM (10%). In August 2020, regulator ENACOM granted Empatel a licence covering fixed voice, mobile, fixed broadband and pay-TV.
Currently Empatel operates over 1950km of fibre infrastructure, and is actively rolling out fibre-to-the-home (FTTH) services across the province. CommsUpdate reports that local cooperatives and ISPs are in line to market and manage these services.
