Huancavelica city, one of the regions the Gilat-backed project will benefit. Photo: David Alexis, Wikimedia Commons

[Via Satellite 03-06-2015] Peru’s telecommunications investment fund Fitel has awarded a $285 million regional telecommunications infrastructure project to Gilat Satellite Networks. This is the largest contract ever won by the company since its inception.

Fitel’s regional initiative represents the complementary phase of the Peruvian National Fiber Backbone project, aimed to connect rural villages to broadband services. Within the framework of this phase, Gilat won the bids for three Built, Operate and Transfer (BOT) regional projects in Huancavelica, Ayacucho and Apurimac.

Gilat will build the fiber-optic transport networks, operate them for one year and then transfer them to the government. The company will operate the access networks based on wireless technologies for 10 years before making the transfer to the government. In the frame of the access network operation obligations, Gilat will connect about 600 public institutions to broadband services.

On top of the bids, Gilat expects additional revenues by enabling cellular carriers to acquire network capacity to address the growing needs for voice, data, and Internet in these regions.