Latin America. 100 million people is the goal that aims to achieve the Internet for all plan, launched by Telefónica and aimed at Latin America, where 20% of the region's population still lacks adequate access to mobile broadband.
With "Internet for all", Telefónica extends connectivity under an ecosystem approach, collaborating with a wide range of interested partners and thus solving the challenge of rural connectivity.
Telefónica, together with Facebook, is working on several projects using new technologies and operating models that allow a more profitable development in the deployment of mobile broadband. These projects are already making high-speed mobile internet available to tens of thousands of Peruvians in the highlands and in the Amazon rainforest. With an open approach to network deployment, both companies are making it easier for rural mobile infrastructure operators, local businesses and communities to collaborate on the deployment of high-quality connectivity in an efficient and sustainable way.
Telefónica and Facebook began working together in 2016 within the Telecom Infra Project (TIP), a sectoral project to develop initiatives that allow disaggregating the software and hardware of traditional networks. In early 2017, they began collaborating to serve the unconnected in rural and suburban areas of Peru. The companies developed high-definition ai and population density tools to prioritize connectivity deployments in sparsely populated remote areas and shared the results of these projects publicly through tip.
Recently, teams from both companies have begun testing the feasibility of expanding the capabilities of existing technologies, such as microwave networks, and exploring new radio access network (RAN) solutions such as Parallel Wireless' programmable Open RAN technology to connect remote communities in Peru with 3G and 4G networks based on General Purpose Processing Platforms. The pilot demonstrates the maturity of these technologies to deploy connectivity cost-effectively in areas with a low population density. Telefonica is also testing Facebook's OpenCellular LTE RAN platform.
Following the encouraging results achieved so far in Peru, Telefónica and Facebook have agreed to extend their collaboration to two new countries in South America, which will be announced shortly.
