Rural broadband infrastructure
Introduction
The Internet in Chile has its origin in tests carried out in 1986 between the University of Chile and the University of Santiago de Chile, its commercialization began in the mid-1990s, with its massification in the second half of the 2000s. Prior to that, Chile had experimented, without success, with the Synco project in 1971, a system for transferring economic information in "almost" real time with the government.[1].
Internet connections in Chile are provided entirely by the private sector and are essentially available in Fiber Coaxial Hybrid, Fiber to the Home and Mobile Broadband (and to a lesser extent in Satellite Internet and xDSL), at a wide range of speeds and costs.
By 2024, it is estimated that 18.4 million people have an internet connection in Chile; 94.3% of the national population[2].
The Internet in Chile communicates with the rest of the world mainly through 5 submarine cables, in different parts of the national territory, the Pan-American (PanAm), through Arica, the South America-1 (SAm-1), through Arica and Valparaíso, the South American Crossing (SAC)/Latin American Nautilus (LAN) "SAC (cable)"), through Valparaíso, the Google Curie Cable through Valparaíso and the Mistral Cable through Arica and Valparaiso.
The technical regulator of the Internet in Chile is the Ministry of Transportation and Telecommunications, through the Undersecretariat of Telecommunications. The geographic top-level domain is .cl and is administered by the University of Chile through NIC Chile.
History
Initial attempts and Synco
Prior to the introduction of the Internet in Chile, the country communicated with the outside world via Letters, the Chilean Postal service had been started by Chile in 1747 (when it was still part of the Spanish crown),[3] it was not until 1851 that a telegraphy service for communication with the outside world was started, initially in 1851 by wire and officially wireless since 1904,[4] (the Vía Trans Radio having a certain prominence Chilean Radiotelegraphy Company, which would later become VTR "VTR (Chile)"), later communication with the outside world via telephone arose - the implementation of which had begun in Valparaíso in 1878 by - which in 1930 would become the Chilean Telephone Company "Movistar (Chile)") -.