The Telecommunications Company Entel became the first in Latin America and the fourth of the world to introduce the combined satellite coverage for mobile devices, a solution to connect and send messages from remote places without access to terrestrial mobile signal.
The advance of this alliance between the aforementioned Chilean company and the American Starlink was successfully tested in Queulat’s National Parkone of the natural milestones of the Austral Highway, which runs more than 1,000 kilometers in the south of the country through Patagonia.
“This connection is established in a similar way to which a telephone connects to a land antenna, but, in this case, the satellite acts as a space cell antenna, allowing the sending and reception of text messages in remote areas,” explained the general manager of Entel, Antonio Büchi, during the test.
The Minister of Transport and Telecommunications, Juan Carlos Muñoz and the Minister of Interior, Álvaro Elizalde, who received the first message in this way in Santiago sent by his colleague in the field, located in the southern region of Aysén, an area without land mobile connectivity.
“This technological milestone is part of our commitment to bring people’s infinite possibilities closer to people,” Büchi said.
“Sending a text message, in some circumstances, can even save lives. With this authorization to operate commercially we are one of the four companies worldwide that, in a first stage, will deliver messaging service from its cell phone in areas without connectivity,” he added.
The new Entel Starlink service operates through a network of more than 500 Starlink satellites with direct To Cell capabilities that orbit the Earth and establishes a direct bridge between common and currents and satellite mobile devices in areas without coverage of traditional networks.
Therefore, it works as a complementary network in territories without a terrestrial mobile signal as long as there is a clear vision of the sky.
“This advance allows lost or emergency people to communicate and issue a rescue application. And it allows high standard connectivity not only to live inside urban spaces, but also in rural spaces,” said Minister Muñoz.
Along the same lines, the Undersecretary of Telecommunications, Claudio Araya, remarked that “this milestone reinforces the country’s leadership in technological matters.”
Initially it is expected that this technology will be present in almost the entire Chilean continental and insular territory, from the 58 ° South latitude to the north, including Rapa Nui and Juan Fernández, In addition to the territorial sea within the 12 nautical miles and excluding Antarctic, with the possibility that in border areas the availability of the solution will be diminished.
From next June and for a year, the service will be available for free for Entel customers, while the new ones may request their assignment to certain packages, and will be compatible with most mobile devices.
Starlink is property and is operated by Spacex, the space company of the controversial American magnate Elon Musk, one of the main advisors of the American president, Donald Trump.
It is a constellation of artificial satellites that make up Starlink, and among its multiple applications build a satellite internet service that seeks to connect to rural areas already anywhere in the world.
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