Type Private Products Mobile Phones Headquarters Las Condes, Chile | Industry Communication Owner Entel Founded 1997, Santiago, Chile | |
Genre Mobile telecommunications Number of locations 70 Branches (January 2009) Area served Chile
Strategic Agreement with Vodafone | ||
Entel Phone is a Chilean mobile phone operator, a subsidiary of the Entel Chile Group. Currently, it is the second largest cellular phone provider in Chile with 6 million subscribers, behind Movistar Chile with 6.2 million customers. This makes Entel the largest operator with annual growth of the country (15%).
History
Entel PCS born in 1997 as the first operator to use GSM technology in Chile, and the first to use it in such band in Latin America. This technology was finally eventually applied by all its competitors in Chile, Movistar (former Telefónica Móvil and ex-BellSouth Chile) and Claro (former Smartcom).
Later in 2002 Entel PCS added GPRS technology to its network, and later EDGE technology in 2004. In 2006, Entel PCS launched the first 3.5 UMTS / HSDPA network in Latin America, providing all third-generation services in Chile such as video conference, mobile-TV, video streaming and data transfer.
The Entel PCS network reaches nearly all urban areas and major highways of Chile. It is the only carrier that serves in remote locations such as Puerto Williams, Easter Island and Chilean Antarctica.
Entel PCS offers service in two ways: contract (with equipment leases and a monthly service bill; also called postpaid), and prepaid.
On May 11, 2008, Entel PCS sealed a strategic agreement with Vodafone, in which Entel PCS gets access to Vodafone's services and devices, and where Vodafone will be one of the trademarks of Entel for the wireless business. This step will allow Entel PCS to extend their roaming services to major international companies such as Vodafone, China Mobile and Verizon.