Thanks to this agreement, more than 60 communities located in remote parts of Mexico will be able to rely on mobile telephone and internet service in public spaces, schools and healthcare centers, thanks to the extension of the LTE rural network promoted by CFE TEIT via satellite.

HISPASAT, the Spanish satellite solutions and services operator and provider of the Red Eléctrica Group, has been selected by the Mexican communications agency CFE TEIT (CFE Telecomunicaciones e Internet para Todos – Telecommunications and Internet for Everyone) to jointly promote information and communications technologies in rural Mexican towns located in areas with no or insufficient connectivity.

Specifically, HISPASAT will provide a satellite backhaul solution for a network of LTE radio stations in more than 60 communities located in remote areas in Mexico. The turnkey service, which includes all the necessary equipment, satellite engineering, installation, configuration, operation, support and maintenance, will make it possible to offer free mobile phone and internet service in public squares, healthcare centers, hospitals, schools and other community spaces and to improve not only access to the Information Society, but also to reinforce the quality of education, healthcare and governance in Mexico. To do so, HISPASAT has optimized the performance of its Gilat SkyEdge IIC platform, which operates in the Ka band, in order to comply with the demanding requisites in terms of service availability and latency required by CFE TEIT.

Ignacio Sanchis, Chief Commercial Officer of HISPASAT, stated that “we are very proud to collaborate with the Mexican government through the CFE TEIT on bridging the digital divide in rural areas. HISPASAT’s satellite technology and its coverage over all Mexico, as well as our vast experience in rural connectivity projects in the country, make us an immediate, high-quality solution for areas with insufficient or no internet access.”

HISPASAT and bridging the digital divide in Mexico

CFE Telecomunicaciones e Internet para Todos aims to guarantee the right to access information and communications technology to the entire population of Mexico, along with radio broadcast and telecommunications services. According to figures from the Mexican National Institute of Statistics and Geography (INEGI) from 2020, only 50.4% of the rural population uses the internet, 27.9 percentage points less than the population located in urban areas. This difference means that it is essential to promote satellite technology in these areas to spur development, provide egalitarian stability throughout society and definitively bridge the digital divide.

In recent years, HISPASAT has carried out a variety of initiatives focused on this issue across Mexico. Thanks to their universal coverage and simple roll out, satellites are the ideal option to extend connectivity to the most remote populations quickly and efficiently. Along these lines, for example, HISPASAT is going to connect more than 700 base stations from Altán’s Shared Network to accelerate the universal implementation of 4.5G LTE coverage in remote areas in Mexico. To do so, this service that is now being provided to more than 60 hotspots can be exported not only to other towns in Mexico, but throughout Latin America thanks to HISPASAT’s coverage over the region.