Internet para Todos will expand Internet connectivity in Latin America

Telefónica, Facebook, IDB Invest, and CAF -development bank of America Latina- have presented Internet para Todos (IpT) Peru, a wholesale operator of open access telecommunications infrastructures that seeks to reduce the digital gap in Latin America. The project´s purpose of this to bring mobile broadband to remote populations where the deployment of conventional telecommunications infrastructure is currently unfeasible from an economic point of view. 

In the region, around 100 million people, 20% of the population, do not have proper access to mobile Internet,or to the benefits of the digital economy. IpT Peru´s mission is to bridge this digital gap and connect Peru rural communities, by allowing any mobile operator to use its 3G and 4G infrastructure and offer quality communications services in these areas.  The success of IpT Peru will lay the foundations to replicate this type of business model in other Latin America and Caribbean countries. 

Peru Telefonica provides and opens its current rural business to IpT Peru. Facebook, IDB Invest, and CAF, for their part, are investing in the new company to improve the existing voice services and deploy new infrastructure to provide mobile Internet coverage under a wholesale model of Network as a Service (NaaS). The agreement is subject to regulatory permission.

Bridging the digital gap and ensuring a short-term inclusion requires a holistic approach that combines the business and new technology innovation and policies with new forms of collaboration. With this approach, IpT Peru wants to prove that new business models under the principles of open access, cooperation, technological innovation and the right policies, are not only possible, but they can also transform the infrastructure under NaaS model, connecting different communities in isolated areas and ensuring, at the same time, a financial return and commercial viability that can be replicated in other parts of the world. 

IpT will offer access to a rural broadband infrastructure under a wholesale model that will allow operators to launch commercial communication services to users, companies, and organizations in rural communities. IpT will achieve economic sustainability by means of agreements with local communities and the use of open technologies that will reduce the cost of deployment in areas where the deployment cost of conventional technologies is now prohibitive. Thus, IpT will be backed by cloud architecture, automatic network planning, open radio access solutions (Open RAN), and a combination of optimized fiber and microwave networks. 

Teresa Gomes, CEO of Internet para Todos, said: "Our innovative proposal provides infrastructure as a service to reduce the digital gap as soon as possible, and offers access to any mobile operator to the rural market. Our goal now is to launch and escalate the project in Peru, and show that it is possible to deploy it in the rest of Latin America and the world." 

Internet para Todos was originally a Telefónica initiative that considers connectivity as an essential requirement to have access to the benefits provided by digitalization and for the economic and social progress of people. Under this innovative model of infrastructure deployment and through the projects in which it has collaborated with companies like Facebook, Telefónica de Peru has already connected 2,000 communities in remote areas, reaching out to 600,000 people.

Partners’ feedback 

Bernardo Quinn, Managing Director, Telefónica Hispam Sur

"Internet para Todos is an example of how Telefónica is addressing the new sector´s challenges and how it takes advantage of the opportunities to grow by promoting collaboration models with other partners." 

Dan Rabinovitsj, President of Connectivity, Facebook

"Providing a quality, scalable and efficient connectivity to rural communities is essential to bridge the digital gap. With IpT Peru, we are investing in a new way of expanding access to mobile broadband in rural areas and paving the way for new approaches required by the sector, thus ensuring that everyone can access the benefits provided by Internet." 

James Scriven, CEO, IDB Invest

"Internet para Todos represents a groundbreaking pioneer business model for rural connectivity in Peru and throughout Latin America and the Caribbean, and its success could be the solution to offer digital connectivity in rural areas, one of the main development challenges of the Fourth Industrial Revolution. IDB Invest wants to contribute to the creation of new markets and opportunities in the region, by promoting access to broadband at a good price thus reducing the digital divide." 

Luis Carranza, Chief Executive, CAF

"CAF commits itself to promote high impact social initiatives in the region. Internet para Todos allows us to join forces to reduce the digital divide that deepens the socioeconomic inequality between communities with and without Internet. We will start working in rural areas of Peru and our goal is to be able to expand the program in the medium term to all Latin America."