The America Movil subsidiary Claro Chile has become the first operator to launch commercial LTE (long term evolution) services in the Latin American country. Nokia Siemens Networks provided the radio and core network and services for the operator’s new 4G network, which will provide customers with access to a number of advanced services.
“Our customers can now look forward to super-fast mobile broadband that will offer them a significantly superior service experience," said Gerardo Muñoz, chief executive officer at Claro Chile.
Under the contract, Nokia Siemens Networks provided an LTE radio access network featuring its high-capacity Flexi Multiradio 10 Base Station – a Single RAN (radio access network) base station for GSM, 3G, and LTE. To complete the LTE network, the company also deployed its Evolved Packet Core network to help the operator deal with the unprecedented increase in data traffic.
For Claro Chile, NSN’s Global Services unit is providing network planning and optimisation services, as well as operational services for process alignment, support and engineering. With the help of these, the LTE implementation for Claro Chile was accomplished in record time, in accordance with the rules set by Subtel, the Chilean telecom regulator. The contract also includes care hardware and competence development services.
Raúl Romero, head of NSN’s America Movil team, said: “We are proud to be associated with this important project that marks the debut of commercial 4G services in Chile – a landmark accomplishment in one of the most advanced communications markets in Latin America.”
Having laid the foundation of this initiative with joint LTE trials in November 2012, Nokia Siemens Networks and Claro Chile conducted the first 4G-LTE call on the operator’s network in March this year. This was an important precursor to the formal introduction of commercial LTE services in the country.
