Entel Chile Brings LTE to Rapa Nui with O3b Satellite

Entel Chile has enabled 3G, LTE and broadband Internet services on Rapa Nui (Easter Island) using satellite backhaul from O3B Networks.

Easter Island, which has a population of less than 6,000, is the most remote part of the Entel networ, lying almost 3,700km from mainland Chile in the Polynesian Triangle.  The island is visited by more than 80,000 tourists per year.

O3b satellites orbit much closer to Earth than conventional geostationary satellites. The O3bTrunk service employed by Entel delivers latency equivalent to long haul fiber, with round-trip times of less than 150 milliseconds. This allows access to improved quality voice, streaming HD video, social media, online gaming, enterprise software applications and overall performance for the end-user on par with connections in Santiago or other mainland cities.

“We are excited to see that O3bTrunk is now live on Easter Island, a place right in the middle of the Pacific, which makes it very difficult to reach by terrestrial networks” said Omar Trujillo, VP Americas for O3b. “We are pleased to be enabling broadband, and a true 4G experience to the island’s residents, thanks to our low latency. We look forward to continuing our work with Entel to provide flexible, reliable and scalable solutions to difficult to reach areas in Chile, Peru and beyond.”

http://www.o3bnetworks.com/

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Entel Chile Combines 2600 MHz and 700 MHz for 250 Mbps

Entel Chile has tested an end-to-end LTE-Advanced (LTE-A) Carrier Aggregation (CA) implementation supporting data speeds up to 250 Mbps.

The demonstration took place in September 22 and was performed using Ericsson Networks Software 14A on both 2600 MHz and APT700 MHz spectrum bands on a commercial network, using a commercial terminal. Entel is the first operator in Latin America to test 250 Mbps speed in a commercial LTE network.

Ericsson is a long-term supplier to Entel.

"This demo places Entel on the very limited list of operators in the world to demonstrate LTE-A in a live network using a commercial terminal. We are very proud to have partnered with Entel in this achievement, further extending our long-standing relationship," stated Nicolas Brancoli, Vice President of Ericsson Latin America.

http://www.ericsson.com
http://informacioncorporativa.entel.cl/comunicados-de-prensa/posts/entel-realiza-la-primera-conexion-con-tecnologia-lte-advanced-de-latinoamerica

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Chile's Entel tets 700 MHz LTE with Ericsson

Entel, Chile's leading telecommunications operator, in testing the APT700 (Asia-Pacific Telecommunity 700MHz) spectrum in collaboration with Ericsson.

The trial was conducted by enabling 10 test sites with equipment using APT700 MHz frequency band on Entel's live 4G LTE network in Rancagua city, which is located 85 km south of Santiago de Chile.  The operator is expected to proceed with commercial deployment in 2015.

Antonio Büchi, CEO, Entel, said: "The APT700 band has the ability to provide excellent in-building coverage as well as wide area coverage in suburban and rural areas. We expect, once we have the release by the government, to deploy our nationwide network. Our customers will benefit from an LTE mobile broadband service featuring a combination of high speed, improved throughput and low latency, all of which combine to provide an enhanced user experience."

http://www.ericsson.com/news/1879150

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