Chilean telecommunications regulator Subtel announced that Telefonica Empresas, the B2B brand of the Spanish operator, has been awarded the contract for the final stretch of the country’s National Fibre Optic (FON) initiative. The company has been contracted to connect 58 digital divide localities in the southern regions of La Araucania, Los Rios and Los Lagos for a total of USD 31 million after beating rival bidders GTD and WOM.
The southern macro-zone is the last of 6 macro-zones included in the project. The contracts for the first 5 zones were awarded to WOM last year, with the authorities initially estimating that the entire 10,000 km backbone covering 2.5 million residents in 186 municipalities would be completed by 31 December 2022 at a total cost of CLP 86 billion (around USD 120 million).
