Infonet Redes de Informacion C.A.

Active

Prospective

Infonet Redes de Informacion C.A. was awarded a concession to provide telecommunications services in the rural area known as Region 1 in January 1997. Region 1 includes the states of Apure, Barinas, Lara, Merida, Portuguesa, Tachira, Trujillo, and Zulia. The company may provide a wide range of telecommunications services, such as basic local services, payphones, mobile phone services, value-added services, trucking, and other services. Two other companies (Corporacion Digital and Consorcion Elca) were awarded similar concession for the rural areas known as Region 2 and 3 in May 1998. The main sponsor of Infonet Redes de Informacion C.A. is Telcom Ventures L.L.C. Conatel, the telecom regulatory agency, did not award any subsidy for rural telecommunications because it considered that the provision of advance services will generate the necessary resources to finance the whole operation. Infonet Redes de Informacion committed to invest, at least, US$ 25 million during its first three years of operation to serve 2 million inhabitants. In January 2006, Telvenco (a subsidiary of Venezuela's Cisneros Group) acquired Infonet as part of a plan to form a national competitor to larger rivals Movistar and Movilnet. In May 2006, Venezuelan telecoms regulator Conatel approved the acquisition and approved the takeover bids of Infonet. Wireless connections: 2003 2004 2005 Infonet 117,000 132,168 156,036 In January 2006, the Cisneros group -who acquired Digitel- released a statement saying it had reached an agreement with Venezuela's two other GSM operators Infonet and Digicel to combine them with Digitel. The combined entity will retain the name Digitel. None

Information and communication technology (ICT)

World Bank Group

Project

Broadband, Road, Telecommunications, Commercial, Manufacturing (Industrial), Government