With Enacom and some means of external financing, Ecom, the state company (sapem) of the Argentine province of Chaco, seeks two objectives: to strengthen the provincial fiber optic network and install an advanced system with DWDM technology within the network and in the access network to the data center. This technology makes it possible to transmit more data without having to change the fiber or lay a new cable. It is mostly used for long distance networks and submarine cables. Ecom will install this system with Cisco in 13 locations in the interior of Chaco.
Regarding the fiber optic network, 48 of the 69 municipalities of the province have already been connected and is expected to reach 56 after the last contribution of national non-reimbursable funds (ANR), of US$ 2.35 million. The grant is intended to add eight locations to the network: Puerto Vilelas, San Bernardo, Taco Pozo, Avía Terai, Concepción del Bermejo, Los Frontones, Hermoso Campo and Pampa del Infierno, and the financing plan has already been approved.
Ecom currently has 6,000 accesses between wireless technology and FTTX in the province, destined to public organizations and companies, hospitals, schools and banking institutions.
The one in charge of providing services to the home is Chaco Digital, created towards the end of 2019 under the Everon trademark, through FTTH of 30, 60 and 100 Mbps that go between US$ 12 to US$ 15 per month. With 15,000 houses passed and 5,000 connected, it provides services in the cities of Resistencia, Barranqueras and Fontana and currently adds 400 new accesses per month.
The service price caused some 30 ISPs in the province to come together to create the Civil Association of Companies of Chaco Internet Service Providers (ACEPICH, in Spanish), which is still being formed and which includes 80% of the geographical coverage in the province. Although a large part of these providers were present at the meetings held with the provincial government and Ecom representatives, where officials agreed to advance together in the Universalization Internet Access Plan (PUAI, in Spanish) with Ecom, reinforcing local networks and ISPs offer to social plans, the conflict arose after knowing the prices of Everon's service. They also criticize the ANR that Ecom received to connect towns with less than 10,000 inhabitants. From Everon they assure that several ISPs are making deployments in locations where they do not have a license and therefore, Enacom does not have a record of their benefits.
Likewise, Ecom, together with companies from Formosa Refsa Telecomunicaciones and the missionary Marandú Comunicaciones, will connect to an IXP in San Pablo. With this action, it seeks to reduce the costs of retail providers in the interior and the latency that the northeastern provinces of the country have when channeling their international traffic leaving or entering through Buenos Aires. They will also seek that the ISPs and cooperatives associated with their networks can have this alternative for their services. This project is through the Capricorn Network, inaugurated in April 2019.