Argentina launches ARS 38 bln fibre, TV and satellite plan

Argentina’s president Alberto Fernandez has launched a plan to improve the country's connectivity focusing on state-owned operator Arsat. The president said ARS 37.9 billion (around USD 500 million) will be invested in the ‘Plan Conectar’ programme, whose objectives include strengthening the country’s fibre-optic and TV networks as well as building a new telecommunications satellite. In July, Arsat announced that its new Arsat-SG1 satellite will be manufactured by local technology company INVAP, with a payload in the Ka band and a data traffic capacity of more than 50 Gbps, with a view to bringing satellite-based broadband to more than 200,000 homes in underserved areas by 2023.

A total of ARS 19.950 billion of the ‘Plan Conectar’ programme will be allocated to the new satellite, with ARS 13.2 billion spent on upgrading the country’s Federal Fibre Optic Network (Refefo), also managed by Arsat, a further ARS 4.3 billion on a national data centre and ARS 450 million on reactivating FTA DTT.  One of the aims of the plan is to build and activate a further 4,408 kilometres of fibre-optic cables, bringing Refefo’s total to 38,808 kilometres by 2023, and allowing 490,000 more people to connect to it, said the government.

The announcement comes a few weeks after the government issued a new decree of necessity and urgency (DNU) declaring internet, mobile and pay-TV services “essential” and preventing operators from hiking prices until the end of the year.