Colombian connectivity service provider INRED and satellite operator SES announced their latest collaboration on Monday, with this one using SES’ medium earth orbit (MEO) satellites to provide internet connectivity in the department (administrative division) of Amazonas.
The project – launched under the auspices of the Colombian government’s Amazonas Digital initiative – aims to connect more than 500 homes, schools, government entities, and thousands of habitants in Amazonas.
INRED said it will use the MEO satellites to connect the city of Leticia and other rural areas in Amazonas that will enable better access to educational and governmental services.
SES said its MEO satellites, which orbit 8,000 km above the Earth, will play a major role in complementing the government’s digital inclusion initiatives to deliver connectivity to the most hard-to-reach regions in the country.
Amazonas, located in the southernmost part of Colombia, is the country’s largest department in area while having the third smallest population (just over 76,500 as of 2018).
The Amazonas project is the latest in which INRED and SES have collaborated with the Colombian government over the past six years. In February this year, the two companies teamed with the Ministry of Information and Communication Technologies (MinTic) to launch the "Zonas Comunitarias para la Paz" project, which will use SES’ geostationary satellites to connect 300 new sites in remote, sparsely-populated areas.
Omar Trujillo, VP of Enterprise Americas at SES, said the satellite operator has helped INRED to “connect nearly one million people in 1,300 sites across Colombia with free Wi-Fi access.”
“Having a long-term partner such as SES, who operates satellites in both geostationary and MEO orbits and knows our connectivity needs well, we have full trust in SES offering the most ideal satellite network to pave the way to a better social and economic future for the people of Colombia,” said INRED CEO John Ureña in a statement.
