Colombian state-owned telco Une-EPM is set to begin rolling out infrastructure for its Long Term Evolution (LTE) network to twelve to thirteen department capitals by the end of the year, reports Business News Americas. Juan Palacio, the leader of Une-EPM’s 4G project claimed that Bogota, Medellin, Barranquilla and Cali would be the first cities to see the new technology, with 680 base stations required for the capital, Bogota, and Medelin alone. As previously reported by CommsUpdate, the rollout will be carried out in two stages, the first by Chinese vendor Huawei, with phase two implemented by Sweden’s Ericsson. Palacio said that developments to the network would most likely be conducted by the same companies.
Une-EPM expects the network to be operational within the first three months of 2012 and will initially target its existing customer base, which it claims to be in the region of two million subscribers. According to Palacio, the cellco is aiming to have signed up half of its current customer base to 4G services during the first two years.