Rural broadband infrastructure | Construpedia

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)") -.

Rural broadband infrastructure

Introduction

By 2024, it is estimated that 18.4 million people have an internet connection in Chile; 94.3% of the national population[2].

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 , 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)") -.

Marketing of 56k and ADSL

Only in 1993 did the commercialization of the Internet begin in Chile, the then CTC (Chilean Telephone Company "Movistar (Chile)") acquired the technology from the University of Chile, while the technology from the Catholic University of Chile passed through several private owners until today it became Claro Chile.[9].

The then CTC (Chilean Telephone Company "Movistar (Chile)"), using its existing telephone network, launched in 1993 the Switched Line Connection service - with maximum speeds of 56 Kilobit per second -, which had some peculiarities, you could not use the telephone line and browse at the same time, there was no local connection, so the traffic between users of both networks had to navigate to the US and back and the service was billed per second of access and as international long distance, which made the service exclusive to a large part of the population.[9].

Additionally, the majority of the population did not see the Internet as very useful; outside of the academic environment, there was no interest in the Internet in Chilean society.[10].

During the 1990s, telephone companies and long distance carriers began to offer Internet connection services to the masses.

The massiveness of the Internet in Chile began in 1997 and is essentially due to the creation of NAP Chile and a decree of the Chilean Government, which changed the way of billing for the Internet, which allowed between 1998 and 1999 to increase Internet users, which tripled; as well as the number of minutes they consumed per month.[11].

In 1997, several Chilean ISPs associated to form a local traffic exchange point, called NAP Chile[12], which allowed them to improve both traffic latency and the costs of their associated ISPs.

In May 1999, the Chilean government decreed a change in rates for those who access the Internet using telephone connections; a charging formula called Local Tranche would be used. The impact on the cost of use is direct for users, having a 62% decrease compared to the previous year.[11].

One of the main access barriers that the Internet service had in Chile was its charge per second of connection. It was towards the beginning of the year 2000, when Entel Chile and Telefónica Chile began to incorporate ADSL technology into their existing telephone networks, fixed charge connections but at exclusive prices for a large part of the population, with this Broadband was born, the ability to have high speed was radically changing the impact of the Internet and its possible uses.[13].

The development of the FTTH and satellite network

The development of the Internet in Chile until 2006 was based on the conversion and reuse of two previously existing technologies in Chile: on the one hand, the switched telephone network of the Chilean Telephone Company - which in some sectors dated back to 1880 - was reused, via Digital Subscriber Line technology, and on the other hand, VTR's cable television network "VTR (Chile)") was reused - which in some sectors dated back to 1987 -, via Hybrid fiber coaxial technology, both had wide coverage in the national territory, but also had important technical limitations - especially the switched telephone network - in terms of speed, latency and state of the wiring (which caused the rapid decline of xDSL networks from 2015 to the present).[17].

Although internet providers via cable television infrastructure began to incorporate new DOCSIS standards and internet providers via switched telephone network infrastructure progressively implemented ADSL2 and VDSL2, it was only in 2006 that the company Gtd began the deployment of a new infrastructure to provide internet, based on fiber to the home. Initially, the infrastructure was deployed in high-class residential sectors and with limited geographic coverage, later in 2012 Movistar "Movistar (Chile)") began the deployment of its new fiber-to-the-home infrastructure - with a special massive deployment since 2020 -, which was joined by Mundo "Mundo (Chile)") and Entel "Entel (Chile)") in 2020, WOM "WOM (Chile)") in 2019 and VTR "VTR (Chile)") in 2021, the latter three, with limited geographic coverage.[17].

Residential satellite Internet in Chile is a rather limited phenomenon, the majority of its consumers are part of the economic development of the rural environment, the domestic rural environment mostly uses mobile broadband, however since 2014, Movistar (Chile) "Movistar (Chile)") markets Satellite Broadband,[18] to which Claro Chile would be added the following year,[19] in 2020 Hughes Communications would begin its commercialization, to which Starlink would add it the following year.[20] As of December 2021, it reported more than 1,500 clients.[21].

contemporary internet

Since 1999, the Government of Chile has incorporated a successive process of digitalization of its services. In 1999, the Internal Revenue Service, the government entity in charge of collecting taxes, received almost 90 thousand income tax returns via the Internet, out of the million total tax returns of that year,[22] since the 2010s, a significant number of government procedures have been digitalized, in addition to a progressive adoption of electronic and Commerce Banking electronic, coinciding with an accelerated globalization process in Chile starting in the 2000s.[10].

Analysts point out that a huge percentage of Chilean GDP has grown thanks to the Internet. Mining, agriculture and all traditional companies have been impacted in their growth thanks to the Internet. The Internet has freed Chile from its isolated geography and has allowed Chile to insert itself into the world efficiently.[10].

The main test of internet infrastructure that Chile has experienced was the 2010 Chile Earthquake, which left a massive internet outage and much network infrastructure destroyed - including a flood of Global Crossing servers.[23].

However, the main agent of change in the Contemporary Internet in Chile was the COVID-19 Pandemic in Chile, which caused an increase in internet consumption in Chile that was reflected in the first months of the pandemic, where it was reported that the use of social networks increased by 53% compared to the same month of the previous year, above several other countries in the region.[24].

Data consumption per user reached 335.5 GB on fixed internet in April 2020, 29.4% more than the previous year. Regarding mobile internet consumption, it increased 26% to 13 Gigabytes in the same period,[25] a situation even more accentuated with the confinement due to the pandemic, where the network was exposed to intensive use, which forced operators to strengthen their existing infrastructure and society and the Government of Chile to digitalize many of their services, massively emerging Teleworking, Telemedicine, Distance Education, Electronic Banking in an absolute manner, the Chilean Judiciary of remotely, Streaming and other services that continue to this day.[25].

For the Forest Fires in Chile in 2024 in the Valparaíso region, due to the fire, telephone antennas were destroyed, as well as satellite backup systems and several kilometers of trunk and domestic fiber cabling, which added to the widespread power outage due to the damage from the fires and an unprecedented overload of the fixed and mobile network [26] caused that around 7 p.m. on February 2, 2023, all of Viña del Mar and Quilpué will experience a "blackout" of fixed and mobile internet from all companies, leaving IP Telephony and Transbank out of service (and with it the processing of payment transactions with credit, bank debit and prepaid cards out of service), although internet companies quickly activated National Emergency Automatic Roaming (RAN) (which is essentially automatically sharing their antennas, making communication redundant in case of failure at any point) and portable satellite teleports for the use of Chilean Armed Forces, Chilean Carabineros, Chilean Investigative Police, Chilean Firefighters and emergency health services, domestic connectivity took several weeks to return in full. [27].

Improvement projects

Completed Projects

During the years 2004 to 2009, the Telecommunications Development Fund supported the laying of cables for several successive projects that sought to connect both the island of Chiloé and the province of Palena and the Aysén region.[65] Connectivity with the island was done through a 10 Gbit/s wireless link in the Pargua area.

In the case of connectivity to Aysén,[66] the first cable was inaugurated in 2008, it was awarded to the company Telefónica del Sur and has terrestrial and other underwater sections with a speed of 10 Gbit/s. Thus, the connectivity of the area improved significantly and rates decreased.[67] A second cable came into operation at the beginning of 2015, connecting Puerto Montt, the large island of Chiloé and crossing to Aysén.[68].

In 2009, Entel was awarded the plan to extend the mobile service network (for voice and data) in rural areas to cover 90% of the country's population, thus adding 3 million people. This considered coverage of more than 1,400 locations. It was completed in 2012.[69].

Later, in 2015, as compensation for the 2600 MHz spectrum auction, another complementary plan was executed, through which more than 500 localities received connectivity, benefiting approx. 130,000 people.[70][71].

As of 2014, two stages of a project have been implemented to provide Wi-Fi access points in public spaces. In the first stage, 196 points were enabled and in the second, 416 additional points were reached throughout the country.[72][71] In addition, in 2019, private companies Claro, Virgin Mobile and Mundo") give access to free Wi-Fi points or zones in the capital, San Bernardo and Rancagua in their stores, Metro de Santiago and EFE Central. In 2020, many Municipalities of Chile, main malls, in Unimarc supermarkets from their application in Its almost 300 stores throughout the country, on urban and interurban buses and at the Santiago Airport, already have free internet service.

It is an underwater cable that connects Puerto Montt with the southern tip of Chile,[73] with a capacity of 10 10Gbps signals,[74] which involved an investment close to $52 billion pesos at the time[75] that came into operation during 2020[76][77] and has a length of about 2600 km.

Projects in development

At the end of 2011, talks began to install cross-border fiber optics between Arica and Tacna and thus improve connectivity between the countries. The project should have been defined in the first quarter of 2012,[78] but as of 2013 there is still no progress.[79].

As part of a plan to improve connectivity between South American countries, it was proposed to build a fiber optic ring between the UNASUR countries. This ring was to be operating in 2014 for the World Cup in Brazil.[80] Due to the volume of data that several astronomical observatories are expected to produce, Chile was interested in participating.[81] In April 2019, Chile announced its definitive departure from the organization.

Gtd Telsur deployed a submarine cable with an initial capacity of 4 Tbps that connects 12 cities between Arica and Puerto Montt, improving the country's transportation capacity.[82] It entered into operation in 2021.[83].

During Michelle Bachelet's second government, a submarine cable project was announced that would link Chile with Oceania. The project is called "Digital Gateway Asia - South America".[84] An investment of USD 400 million is estimated.[85].

The route will have an approximate distance of 14,800 kilometers and will pass through Easter Island, improving its connectivity with the continent[86][87] Its initial design contemplates a transmission capacity of 144 Tbps[86] and has the support of Argentina, Brazil and Ecuador.[84][87].

It is estimated that it will enter into operation in 2025.[86].

During 2018, the creation of a project was announced to build fiber optic networks that would improve household access to this technology, since the penetration of fiber optics in them is estimated to be very low.[88] In addition, it seeks to improve the resilience of existing networks and increase transport capacity.[88] It will initially have 5 macrozones between the regions of Arica and Los Lagos. It is complementary to the FOA cable.

In April 2020, it was announced that WOM "WOM (Chile)") was awarded 5 of the 6 areas of the project, being the company that requested the lowest subsidy. An investment of 70 million dollars is estimated.[89] In February 2021, it was announced that 3 companies submitted offers to participate in the southern macrozone, the only one that had not been awarded.[90].

Complementing the FON project, the "Tarapacá Fiber Optic" project was launched in the region of the same name and will have an extension of 487 km, reaching 15 towns of various sizes. In December 2021, its construction was awarded and it is expected to enter service in 2024.[91].

At the end of 2021, an agreement was signed to study the feasibility of building an underwater cable that reaches Antarctica and thus improve the connectivity and connection capacity of various bases present.[92] It is estimated that the cable would have a length of approximately 1000 kilometers.[92] reaching King George Island.[93].

Reviews

Service cost

In 2011, one of the biggest criticisms was that the service is expensive compared to other OECD countries.[94][95] Faced with this, some companies asked to review the calculation methodology.[96].

Compliance with promised speed and latency

A recurring complaint from users has to do with compliance with the committed speed by ISPs, especially during busy hours.[97] This occurs for both fixed and mobile internet service providers,[98] The latency of the service, the existence of microcuts and the routing to the servers of online games and streaming communication applications are also a frequent complaint from Gamers[99].

Service Stability

During the COVID-19 Pandemic in Chile, a series of confinements occurred, which resulted in an increase in Teleworking, Distance Education and Telemedicine, added to the increase in consumption of Cable Television, Online Video Games and Streaming platforms, which generated intensive use of the Internet network in Chile and in particular the VTR network "VTR (company)") - which towards the beginning of 2020 concentrated around 33.8% of broadband connections in Chile-, Data consumption per user reached 335.5 GB on VTR fixed internet in April 2020, averaging a consumption per household of 1.34 TB monthly.[25].

The above resulted in successive service cuts, at different frequencies and durations during 2020 and 2021. In May 2020, VTR apologized for constant drops in service during the health crisis, pointing out that “We cannot keep up,” noting that “traffic exploded by 40 percent in March.”[100].

Customer service and technical support

Another recurring complaint among Internet users in Chile is the poor sales and after-sales service associated with the service. In many cases, it is observed that the companies' sales force does not fully understand what they are selling, or they generate sales that lead to contracting errors. This is added to general criticism of the technical assistance process, such as poorly trained technicians, poorly made installations, subcontracting of technical assistance (even to companies without legal operation or residence in Chile), excessive time from the request to the technical visit and also the endorsement of the client's responsibility in case of a network failure.[101].

The excessive bureaucracy associated with the retention and cancellation of Internet service contracts is also criticized; companies prevent the contract from being canceled instantly, rather they bureaucratize the process (requiring several calls, several times personal identification, letter writing, in-person attendance at the branch, etc.) to prevent the client from deserting the contract or to delay said process as much as possible.[102].

Protocol filtering and traffic shaping

Although the network is neutral in Chile, VTR "VTR (company)") is the center of complaints from several users for its practices that limit the potential of their connections, through loopholes such as the application of techniques such as traffic shaping and port blocking, specifically those of P2P programs such as Bittorrent, which leads users of P2P programs to use VPN.[103].

Equipment Used

Outside the home Internet network, each ISP uses its own models of Modems in the client's home, of different types and from different providers, under the rental modality, some providers reuse the equipment of other clients who have canceled the service for new clients, the reuse of this equipment, the use of low quality brands and the low renewal of the equipment by the ISPs to clients who have been using it for years (many companies wait for its complete malfunction before its replacement, attributing responsibility to the client), leads in many cases to incidents in the connection of the service with the Internet network or with home devices, causing criticism for their quality.[104].

Likewise, the obligation to use and rent Modems imposed by the company is criticized, preventing the end user from using their own equipment to replace the ones provided, as well as the limitation on advanced configuration of said devices.[105].

IPv6.

Marketing of 56k and ADSL

Additionally, the majority of the population did not see the Internet as very useful; outside of the academic environment, there was no interest in the Internet in Chilean society.[10].

During the 1990s, telephone companies and long distance carriers began to offer Internet connection services to the masses.

In 1997, several Chilean ISPs associated to form a local traffic exchange point, called NAP Chile[12], which allowed them to improve both traffic latency and the costs of their associated ISPs.

The development of the FTTH and satellite network

contemporary internet

Improvement projects

Completed Projects

Projects in development

It is estimated that it will enter into operation in 2025.[86].

Reviews

Service cost

In 2011, one of the biggest criticisms was that the service is expensive compared to other OECD countries.[94][95] Faced with this, some companies asked to review the calculation methodology.[96].

Navegación

Rural broadband infrastructure

Introduction

History

Initial attempts and Synco

Rural broadband infrastructure

Introduction

History

Initial attempts and Synco

The university network

Marketing of 56k and ADSL

The development of the HFC network and 3G

The development of the FTTH and satellite network

contemporary internet

Regulation and legislation

Indicators and use

Bandwidth

Malicious traffic

Technical aspects

Contenido

Applications and services present

Local presence of clouds

Internet infrastructure

International connection infrastructure

Local connection infrastructure

Improvement projects

Completed Projects

Projects in development

Reviews

Service cost

Compliance with promised speed and latency

Service Stability

Customer service and technical support

Protocol filtering and traffic shaping

Equipment Used

References

The university network

Marketing of 56k and ADSL

The development of the HFC network and 3G

The development of the FTTH and satellite network

contemporary internet

Regulation and legislation

Indicators and use

Bandwidth

Malicious traffic

Technical aspects

Contenido

Applications and services present

Local presence of clouds

Internet infrastructure

International connection infrastructure

Local connection infrastructure

Improvement projects

Completed Projects

Projects in development

Reviews

Service cost

Compliance with promised speed and latency

Service Stability

Customer service and technical support

Protocol filtering and traffic shaping

Equipment Used

References