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Peru Amazon jungle project

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Almost 3.5 m connections for Peru Amazon jungle project

60% of Peru is covered by Amazon rainforest, home to 5% of a 32m population. The country’s remote regions are exceedingly hard to reach with full-fibre connections, making satellite internet essential to closing the digital divide. Recently, Peru’s transport and communications ministry announced its Conecta Selva satellite-based internet initiative had reached almost 3.5 m internet connections in 1,034 localities.

Just 69% of Peru’s population has internet access, according to Statista. The National Institute of Statistics and Informatics (INEI) places this figure even lower, at 45%. The ‘Conecta Selva’ (‘Connect the Jungle’) project, run by national telecommunications fund Pronatel and Telespazio Argentina, provides public institutions with 10Mb/s download and 2Mb/s upload connection speeds free of charge.

Thanks to ‘Conecta Selva’ approximately 264,000 people in more than 1,000 underserved localities across four regions (Madre de Dios, Ucayali, Amazonas and Loreto) will have internet access via VSAT antenna installations in public institutions. 97% of these connections (1,212) are in schools, offering development opportunities to students in remote parts of the Peruvian Amazon, and the remaining 3% (104) can be found in health centres. €22.78 m (PEN 90 m) has been made available for the project.

The satellite link is made possible by the EUTELSAT 117 WEST B satellite, which covers targeted areas of the Amazon rainforest with a high-power Ku-band widebeam. “This high-performance Ku satellite is fully compatible with our ground infrastructure, enabling us to optimise our existing assets to respond to the demand for connectivity required in the shortest possible timeframe,” explains Nicolás de Gracia, General Manager Telespazio Peru.

Other initiatives are also enhancing coverage in the Amazon, such as Starlink, a division of Tesla, which has 4,000 low-orbit satellites connecting people across the region.

  • In 2022, there were approximately 23.28 m internet users in Peru.
  • Internet penetration currently amounts to 69.1 % of the population.
  • The number of users connecting to the Web is expected to reach 28.08 m by 2027.

 

Source: Statista

 

  • Peru’s fixed internet connections rose 5% to 3.29m between March 2022 and 2023.
  • In that period, fibre optics market share grew 13.8 % while cable modem fell 12.5 points.

 

Source: Osiptel