Entel
Encyclopedia
Entel (Acronym for Empresa Nacional de TELecomunicaciones) is a Chile
Chile
Chile ,officially the Republic of Chile , is a country in South America occupying a long, narrow coastal strip between the Andes mountains to the east and the Pacific Ocean to the west. It borders Peru to the north, Bolivia to the northeast, Argentina to the east, and the Drake Passage in the far...

an telecommunications company and Telefónica CTC's fiercest competitor. To foreigners, Entel is best known for the 127 meter high Torre Entel
Torre Entel
Torre Entel is the name of a 127.4 meter high TV and telecommunications tower in Santiago, Chile. Torre Entel has an observation deck open for visitors. Construction began in 1970 during Eduardo Frei Montalva term as president and it was inaugurated in 1974. In 1976 it carried its first...

 (Entel Tower) that rises high above central Santiago
Santiago, Chile
Santiago , also known as Santiago de Chile, is the capital and largest city of Chile, and the center of its largest conurbation . It is located in the country's central valley, at an elevation of above mean sea level...

 and constitutes one of the city's main landmarks.

History

Started in 1964 for the need seen by the Chilean government at the time to have a company offering long distance, improve telecommunications quality within the country and build a network
Telecommunications network
A telecommunications network is a collection of terminals, links and nodes which connect together to enable telecommunication between users of the terminals. Networks may use circuit switching or message switching. Each terminal in the network must have a unique address so messages or connections...

 trunk
Trunking
In modern communications, trunking is a concept by which a communications system can provide network access to many clients by sharing a set of lines or frequencies instead of providing them individually. This is analogous to the structure of a tree with one trunk and many branches. Examples of...

 to replace the old infrastructure badly damaged by an earthquake
Earthquake
An earthquake is the result of a sudden release of energy in the Earth's crust that creates seismic waves. The seismicity, seismism or seismic activity of an area refers to the frequency, type and size of earthquakes experienced over a period of time...

.
Coincident with this mission, Entel installed microwave
Microwave
Microwaves, a subset of radio waves, have wavelengths ranging from as long as one meter to as short as one millimeter, or equivalently, with frequencies between 300 MHz and 300 GHz. This broad definition includes both UHF and EHF , and various sources use different boundaries...

 networks in almost the entire national territory and built in 1968 a satellite station in Longovilo 100 miles south west of Santiago, the first in Latin America
Latin America
Latin America is a region of the Americas where Romance languages  – particularly Spanish and Portuguese, and variably French – are primarily spoken. Latin America has an area of approximately 21,069,500 km² , almost 3.9% of the Earth's surface or 14.1% of its land surface area...

.

Entel's activities initially were data transmission and communications service, long distance telecommunications according to the wishes of CORFO
CORFO
Production Development Corporation is a Chilean governmental organization that was founded in 1939, by President Pedro Aguirre Cerda, to promote economic growth in Chile...

. The company built the Longovilo satellite station and the National Center for Telecommunications, popularly known as Torre Entel
Torre Entel
Torre Entel is the name of a 127.4 meter high TV and telecommunications tower in Santiago, Chile. Torre Entel has an observation deck open for visitors. Construction began in 1970 during Eduardo Frei Montalva term as president and it was inaugurated in 1974. In 1976 it carried its first...

 in Santiago, which functions as the central node. After its privatization
Privatization
Privatization is the incidence or process of transferring ownership of a business, enterprise, agency or public service from the public sector to the private sector or to private non-profit organizations...

 it was licensed to operate domestic services: cell phone, Entel PCS
Entel PCS
Entel PCS is a Chilean mobile phone operator, Entel Chile Group subsidiary. Currently, is the second largest cellular phone provider in Chile with 6 million subscribers, behind Chile Movistar with 6.2 million customers, which transforms back into the largest operator with annual growth of the...

 and land line, known as Entel Phone. It was also offered Internet
Internet
The Internet is a global system of interconnected computer networks that use the standard Internet protocol suite to serve billions of users worldwide...

 connectivity.

Entel's privatization began in 1986 and was finalized in 1992. The following year, through a series of transactions, the Group Chilquinta acquired the 19.99% ownership of the company. In June 1996, the Board of Entel shareholders authorized an increase in capital that allowed the entry of Telecom Italia
Telecom Italia
Telecom Italia is the largest Italian telecommunications company, also active in the media and manufacturing industries. Now a private concern listed on the Borsa Italiana, it was founded in 1994 by the merger of several state-owned telecommunications companies, the most important of which was...

, which acquired another 19.99%, sharing control with the Group Chilquinta through of a shareholder pact.

During the first half of 1999, there was a new capital increase of $215 million. This capital contribution was made by the Quiñenco group, property of Entel. In March 2001, Telecom Italia
Telecom Italia
Telecom Italia is the largest Italian telecommunications company, also active in the media and manufacturing industries. Now a private concern listed on the Borsa Italiana, it was founded in 1994 by the merger of several state-owned telecommunications companies, the most important of which was...

 bought their shares of Chilquinta and Matte group, reaching a 54.76% stake.

Since its privatization, Entel's stock has always been one of the greatest movers in the Chilean stock market. During this period they entered into property pension funds, which at the end of 2004 comprised 25.6% of the shares of the Company. Additionally, some international funds and a large number of shareholders have acquired ownership shares of the Company.

In 2005 Entel Group rests with the Chilean group Almendral through Investment Altel staying with 54.76 percent of the property.

In 2006 ENTEL transferred its entire share in Americatel Central America SA and their direct and indirect subsidiaries, BVI Holding Isela Inc. under contract Stock Purchase Agreement ( "SPA"). The sale was based on an assessment of the entire stock of Americatel Centroamerica SA

Entel is a corporation with several subsidiaries:
  • Entel PCS
    Entel PCS
    Entel PCS is a Chilean mobile phone operator, Entel Chile Group subsidiary. Currently, is the second largest cellular phone provider in Chile with 6 million subscribers, behind Chile Movistar with 6.2 million customers, which transforms back into the largest operator with annual growth of the...

    , one of the three Mobile Operators in Chile
  • Entel Data Center
  • Entel Call Center
  • Entel Internet


More information in Entel Web Site

Entel PCS

Entel PCS
Entel PCS
Entel PCS is a Chilean mobile phone operator, Entel Chile Group subsidiary. Currently, is the second largest cellular phone provider in Chile with 6 million subscribers, behind Chile Movistar with 6.2 million customers, which transforms back into the largest operator with annual growth of the...

 s a Mobile Operator. It has about 40% of the market share. It was the first American operator to launch a GSM in 1997. Since the year 2000 the Entel PCS network supports GPRS and since 2003 it supports EDGE
Enhanced Data Rates for GSM Evolution
Enhanced Data rates for GSM Evolution is a digital mobile phone technology that allows improved data transmission rates as a backward-compatible extension of GSM...

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