The National Communications Entity (Enacom) approved a Project for the Deployment and Extension of the Federal Fiber Optic Network (Refefo) in the provinces of Río Negro, Chubut and Santa Cruz, with an investment of $2,461 million, through Resolution 330/2022 published today in the Official Gazette.
The regulation determines that the Argentine Satellite Solutions Company (Arsat) will be in charge of executing the project, for which up to $2,461,171,241.68 will be allocated from the Universal Service Trust Fund.
Said Fund, administered by Enacom, is made up of contributions equivalent to 1% of the total income of each licensee of telecommunications services, and finances, in addition to this program, different initiatives that seek to enable quality access at a “price reasonable” of telecommunications services to all inhabitants.
The objective of the project is to extend the capillarity of Refefo in the three provinces, taking advantage of six non-illuminated fibers that are present within the structures of the guard wire of the high voltage lines of the wholesale firm Trasener, which extend along of 1,360 kilometers between Rio Gallegos and San Antonio Oeste.
The work, with an execution period of one year, will include the “construction and reconditioning of the fiber infrastructure, splicing and construction of optical borders and the adaptation of the sites for the installation of outdoor cabinets or containers where will house the telecommunications equipment”.
In the same way, it contemplates a comprehensive audit service of the National Technological University (UTN) to control compliance with the committed objectives, verifying both the current state of the network, how the equipment to be acquired and the final technical and accounting state.
All of this will make it possible to extend Refefo by 257 kilometers in the Patagonian region, connecting to nine new towns: Sierra Grande, Puerto Madryn, Trelew, Rawson, Garayalde, Pampa del Castillo, Diadema Argentina, Comodoro Rivadavia and Comandante Luis Piedrabuena.
With its implementation, it will seek to integrate more locations to the Federal Network to reduce the digital gap in access and appropriation of information and communication technologies (ICT), benefiting users, agencies and public entities.
In this way, it will aim at a “better positioning of the country at the regional and international level, facilitating the development of the economy in general, contributing to the improvement of productivity and competitiveness.”
Through Refefo, Artat has already integrated 120 distribution nodes into the network and put into service and work continues on another 550 additional nodes, strengthening Internet access in small towns and in commercially unfavorable areas for private investment.
In the same way, it develops satellite internet access projects under the Wi-Fi modality in towns with up to 500 inhabitants.
In addition to Patagonia, in the last two years Enacom has approved extension projects for the Refefo in Tierra del Fuego, Catamarca, Jujuy, Salta, Tucumán and at the Paso de San Francisco and Trevelin-Futaleufú border crossings.
Source: Ambito
