RIO DE JANEIRO – Back in September 2007, Venezuelan pay-tv company Movilmax started to provide WiMAX access to people in Caracas, the country’s capital. After having attracted 10,000 subscribers to the service, the company plans to migrate the network to LTE technology and expand coverage.
“The WiMAX market did not end to be consolidated, without enough WiMAX providers, so we are moving to LTE,” Marilyn Ferreira, network planning manger at Movilmax told RCR Wireless News during this week’s Informa’s LTE Latin America event in Rio de Janeiro.
Ferreira explained the migration will be a gradual change, with trials and demos starting in June and the deployment starting in mid-2013, with a gradual growth throughout 2013 and 2014. “We already have the spectrum needed. We have 48 megahertz of [spectrum frequency in the 2.5 GHz band],” she added.
In addition, Ferreira said the telecom operator touted its technology background with fixed and mobile services; capital expenditure investments and financing; and the great opportunities for mobile data in the local market. Though Ferreira did not disclose investments, she said the company will deploy between 1,000 and 1,500 antennas in order to cover the country.
Movilmax expects to add more subscribers due to the enhanced coverage and plans to roll out voice over LTE services as well. Currently the operator does not offer voice services.
In a country with approximately 28.3 million inhabitants, there are about 11.7 million with Internet access; cellphone penetration is at 101%, with smartphone penetration at 35% and 92% of all mobile phones being prepaid.
Movilmax’s main competitor in the data services market are Telefonica’s Movistar and Digicel.
