During the ISPs Chaco Training Day, organized by Ecom Chaco and the Chamber of Closed Circuit Television Companies of the Province of Chaco (CCTV), with production by Grupo Convergencia, Sapem signed a letter of intent to start a sharing information to provide the MVNO service of the Chamber of Telecommunications Cooperatives (Catel) in the northern province. The service to end users would be provided by local cooperatives and SMEs and directly by Ecom.

Discussions revolve around two possible lines of work. One is related to the improvement of 4G mobile network coverage and the other to the deployment of Carrier Grade Wi-Fi networks.

To improve 4G coverage, proposes that Catel would finance the installation of new Movistar network sites (the MNO of Catel's MVNO), using the Spanish company's frequencies. As an example, in this model, the cooperatives and SMEs that provide the service to the end user would keep about 80% of the traffic of the installed sites and the remaining 20% would be for the payment of the use of the frequencies in a contract format of about 10 years, renewable.

Site maintenance would be provided by local service providers, which would reduce maintenance costs and enable the local provider to generate new revenue from mobile services. The network equipment providers would probably be those already working with the MNO.

If this alternative is successful, it could be a test case for finding a solution for 4G coverage in cities of 500 inhabitants, something that is still pending in the bidding documents, with "waivers" leveraged on the pandemic effect and on which the State does not exert pressure.

The second line of work to be analyzed is the use of fixed networks of local companies, with Carrier Grade Wifi networks. It proposes to deploy more of these antennas and offload mobile traffic automatically.

These lines are complementary to each other. The Wifi Carrier Grade is more suitable for areas of competition with large providers offering multiple services, and for the local provider, without mobile service, it would be a differentiator. Meanwhile, the new 4G sites is a way to improve mobile connectivity in the interior of Chaco.

Ecom Chaco would be the vehicle to reach local SMEs, a sort of "complementary". Since the model is open to dialogue between parties, it is contemplated that the SMEs will tell Sapem what they need and then the conversation will take place. Thus, Ecom is opening the door for SMEs to give their opinion first and reach a consensus.