VTR Studies Entering MVNO Market

Chilean triple play operator VTR is looking to enter the mobile market as a mobile virtual network operator (MVNO), local newspaper Diario Financiero quoted VTR CEO Mateo Budinich as saying.

The executive said the company is constantly exploring all opportunities in order to expand the number of services available.

"One of those is mobile telephony and so far, despite our serious efforts to enter this market, we have not been able to," Budinich said.

The company's first attempt to enter the mobile market was early April when it made a bid to acquire 25Mhz of spectrum sold by mobile operator Movistar Chile, a unit of Spain's Telefónica.

The sale of this spectrum was part of conditions laid down by the anti-monopoly commission TDLC when Spain's Telefónica Móviles, now part of TEF, decided to create the Movistar unit by merging its BellSouth Chile and Telefónica Móvil subsidiaries last year.

In July, Chilean telecoms holding GTD also said it was studying entering the mobile market as a MVNO and had requested telecoms regulator Subtel for a concession license to offer services.

VTR's largest project today is the development of Wi-Max technology that would allow the company to increase its client base by 80%. The project has been delayed as rival operator Telefónica Chile filed a lawsuit arguing irregularities in the concessions process.

Once the legal process is solved, VTR would take approximately one year to develop its Wi-Max business plan.

BNAmericas.com"

Posted to the site on 20th September 2006