The Peruvian Ministry of Transport and Communications (MTC) announced it will invest PEN15 billion ($415 million) as part of measures to bring 4G connectivity to over a million citizens who have never had access to mobile services before.
In a statement, the MTC said it had a target to connect 2,600 underserved areas of Peru to connectivity services for the first time. In measures outlined in the statement, the regulator pledged to optimise the structure of its auction for AWS-3 and 2.3GHz spectrum bands, renew qualifying titles in telecommunications and promote the conversion of the mobile canon.
Also under new proposals, for the process of charging fees for rented spectrum, MTC is aiming to increase its investment into this process to more than PEN130 million this year, up from PEN7 million in 2020. By this action, MTC explained 240 locations will see significant upgrades to connectivity, in contrast to the 27 that were boosted last year.
MTC head, Eduardo Gonzalez said the government’s priority was “accelerating the expansion of telecommunications services in the short term”, as the connectivity gap between urban and rural areas “creates limitations for development and integration into the digital world”.
The regulator recently announced radio waves emitted in the city of Cusco are within international guidelines and safe to the public. It also issued a draft proposal to encourage infrastructure sharing among operators to further enhance connectivity in the country while keeping costs down.
