The first cooperatives of CATEL enter into an agreement to roll out mobile phone service
27 May 2019
The agreement reached with the first cooperatives to launch the mobile phone service was signed on 9th May. Agustín Garzón, Director of the Argentinian National Entity of Communications Enacom participated in the event as a representative of the National Government. The agreement reached involves an initial investment of $2,000,000. Organisations from the provinces of Buenos Aires, Santa Fe and Cordoba, among others, will initially participate.
In 2018 JSC Ingenium made an agreement with the Argentinian Chamber of Telecom Cooperatives CATEL with the aim of deploying its latest generation platform technology Full CORE BSS/OSS 3G and 4G to offer services for mobile telephony as a VMNO (Virtual Mobile Network Operator) to all cooperatives, using the radio network of Movistar in Argentina.
The first cooperatives entering into the agreement are the following: Del Viso, Tortuguitas, Villa Gobernador Gálvez, San Genaro, Hernando and COLSECOR, which brings together more than 400 cooperatives from the country.
As a result, CATEL will be able to offer as a first stage a 4G mobile telephony service in areas of the provinces of Buenos Aires, Cordoba and Santa Fe, where the signing cooperatives are currently providing landline, Internet and paid TV services. Likewise, a single brand identifying the service at the national level is due to be implemented.
Ariel Fernández Alvarado, the chairman of CATEL, stated during the signing event: “Today we are formalising a project on which we have been working for two years, and which represents for us necessity and evolution. Cooperatives strive to play a leading role in mobile phone services at a national level. We must provide our users with an innovative offer, and we will be ready for 5G as a “network of networks”. Again, we the cooperatives, as with IPTV, are keeping up with avant-garde technology”.
About CATEL
CATEL is a not-for-profit entity created in mid-2006, at the initiative of a group of public services companies from different parts of the country, interested in promoting the improvement and development of new services, and creating a space for technological upgrade and training.
Its aims are developing new services, updating partners’ technology and improving current services based on new technologies.
For more information: JSC Ingenium: BSS Solution / www.catel.org.ar
