The picture of telecommunications in Ecuador promises to be interesting next year due to the arrival of the state National Telecommunication Corporation (CNT) as a Triple Play operator. The company, which comfortably leads in fixed telephony, Internet access and carrier services to independent ISPs, is developing a pilot IPTV test in Quito, with 500 "friendly users".
Close sources to the project said to Convergencialatina that the most valuable experience is to understand the dynamics of the new business and define what to do with the networks of Andinatel and Pacifictel- today merged with CNT- to add television. The State has been working on the possibility to offer video for six years, but would be able to provide commercial operations starting the fourth quarter of 2010.
Andinatel was licensed in 2007 to offer encoded television throughout the nation; as it did not fulfill the requirement within one year, it chose to reduce its offer and requested an IPTV license in Quito. According to Supertel sources, if the company had not changed its license, the state would not have been able to provide television, because it would have violated the original terms of the contract.
A complicated inheritance. Due to the union between Andinatel and Pacifictel, CNT¿s architecture became complex through the addition of new services. As a result, during the pilot officials will evaluate changes on the IP/MPLS Core Network manufactured by Cisco, and ADSL 2 + accesses made by Huawei and Alcatel.
CNT sources stated that the pilot is the work of Huawei, however sources said that they will not necessarily continue with the Chinese company in the commercial application: next year they will open a tender, without any obligation to the current technology partner, it had been working closely with Pacifictel and last September won the extension of the National Transmission Network for US$ 25 million.
In addition to this infrastructure, Nvidia and Irdeto equipment will be used. Users will be able to access to 35 channels including 20 national and 15 international.
National aspiration. While everything began in Quito, the objective of the CNT is clear: national coverage through Triple Play packages. In the final analysis, the operator has the largest coverage in copper and geographically, adding 90.08% of market share in fixed telephone subscribers-about 1.778,912. Its eventual entry into the segment will mean a confrontation with Grupo TV Cable, the only company that disputes market share in Ecuador, offering the three services, although under different corporate names.
On the other hand, IPTV could be fertile ground for the CNT to advance within the Internet segment. Increasingly, there are more and more independent ISPs who depend on the state company for last-mile infrastructure (the licensing of value added services in Ecuador does not allow companies to deploy their own networks), and due to Government’s plan for mass access, CNT¿s more affordable prices are hurting private businesses.