This vision is shared by Lourdes Coss, general director of Promtel, who recognizes that these localities do not have many options to integrate into the digital world, since their geographic location increases costs the deployment of infrastructure, added to the small number of residents, which results in these markets being immediately discarded by telecommunications companies.
However, the agency has found options so that these small operators can continue with their connectivity plan. The official revealed that from 2019 to 2020, Promtel has managed to 20 projects receive funding up to 10 million pesos through a fund for rural areas that have the Ministry of Finance and Public Credit (SHCP) and Economy.
Promtel was able to access this financing by explaining to both agencies the importance of continuing to connect people so that they develop digital skills, which can be translated into the creation of more businesses.
“These local developers have mostly pay television services to the localities, but now they have begun to ask for the service of Internet And of course, this service can be carried out, but it is not possible due to the investment it requires since most of these companies are SMEs or family businesses”, explained the official.
Some of the projects that have obtained financing are Cablesur Telekom, Cable Z, MayaCon, KBlex, Telesur, TCI, Regucom, Velocomamong others.
“This is an example that even when there is no policy [digital] defined options can be found to help these small operators. Now these companies are already bringing connectivity and it can be a profitable business, and the government will have to continue expanding the infrastructure to these communities that are so dispersed and in which nobody wants to invest”.
According to data from ENDUTIH 2022, only six out of 10 people of rural areas has achieved access internet serviceand although this number increased 5.8 percentage points from the previous year, public policies that allow accelerating access such as the adoption of telecommunications services in the country still need to be implemented.