Empresa Nacional de Telecomunicaciones S.A. (

doing business as A trade name, trading name, or business name, is a pseudonym used by companies that do not operate under their registered company name. The term for this type of alternative name is a "fictitious" business name. Registering the fictitious name w ...

Entel-Chile S.A.) is the largest

Chile Chile, officially the Republic of Chile, is a country in the western part of South America. It is the southernmost country in the world, and the closest to Antarctica, occupying a long and narrow strip of land between the Andes to the eas ...

telecommunications Telecommunication is the transmission of information by various types of technologies over wire, radio, optical, or other electromagnetic systems. It has its origin in the desire of humans for communication over a distance greater than that ...

company. The company is known for the high

Torre Entel Torre Entel (Entel Tower) is the name of a high TV and telecommunications tower in Santiago, Chile. Torre Entel has an observation deck open for visitors. Construction began in 1970 during Eduardo Frei Montalva term as president and it was ina ...

(Entel Tower) that rises above central

Santiago Santiago (, ; ), also known as Santiago de Chile, is the capital and largest city of Chile as well as one of the largest cities in the Americas. It is the center of Chile's most densely populated region, the Santiago Metropolitan Region, whos ...

and constitutes one of the city's landmarks. As of December 2013 Entel PCS had 38.8% of the Chilean mobile market. It was the first American operator to launch a

GSM The Global System for Mobile Communications (GSM) is a standard developed by the European Telecommunications Standards Institute (ETSI) to describe the protocols for second-generation ( 2G) digital cellular networks used by mobile devices such ...

mobile network in 1997. In 2000, the Entel PCS network offered support for

GPRS General Packet Radio Service (GPRS) is a packet oriented mobile data standard on the 2G and 3G cellular communication network's global system for mobile communications (GSM). GPRS was established by European Telecommunications Standards Ins ...

and in 2003 it added

EDGE Edge or EDGE may refer to: Technology Computing * Edge computing, a network load-balancing system * Edge device, an entry point to a computer network * Adobe Edge, a graphical development application * Microsoft Edge, a web browser developed ...

support.

History

Entel was started in 1964 by the Chilean government at the time to improve long distance, improve

quality within the country and build a

network Network, networking and networked may refer to: Science and technology * Network theory, the study of graphs as a representation of relations between discrete objects * Network science, an academic field that studies complex networks Mathematic ...

trunk Trunk may refer to: Biology * Trunk (anatomy), synonym for torso * Trunk (botany), a tree's central superstructure * Trunk of corpus callosum, in neuroanatomy * Elephant trunk, the proboscis of an elephant Computing * Trunk (software), in rev ...

to replace the old infrastructure badly damaged by an

earthquake An earthquake (also known as a quake, tremor or temblor) is the shaking of the surface of the Earth resulting from a sudden release of energy in the Earth's lithosphere that creates seismic waves. Earthquakes can range in intensity, fr ...

. Entel installed

microwave Microwave is a form of electromagnetic radiation with wavelengths ranging from about one meter to one millimeter corresponding to frequencies between 300 MHz and 300 GHz respectively. Different sources define different frequency ra ...

networks in almost the entire national territory and built in 1968 a satellite station in Longovilo south west of Santiago, a

Latin America Latin America or * french: Amérique Latine, link=no * ht, Amerik Latin, link=no * pt, América Latina, link=no, name=a, sometimes referred to as LatAm is a large cultural region in the Americas where Romance languages — languages derived ...

n first. Entel's activities initially were data transmission and communications service, long distance telecommunications according to the wishes of

CORFO The Production Development Corporation (CORFO, from es, Corporación de Fomento de la Producción de Chile) is a Chilean governmental organization that was founded in 1939 by President Pedro Aguirre Cerda to promote economic growth in Chile. ...

. The company built the National Center for Telecommunications, popularly known as

in Santiago, which functions as the central node. After its

privatization Privatization (also privatisation in British English) can mean several different things, most commonly referring to moving something from the public sector into the private sector. It is also sometimes used as a synonym for deregulation when ...

it was licensed to operate domestic services:

cell phone A mobile phone, cellular phone, cell phone, cellphone, handphone, hand phone or pocket phone, sometimes shortened to simply mobile, cell, or just phone, is a portable telephone that can make and receive telephone call, calls over a radio freq ...

, Entel PCS and land line, known as Entel Phone. It also offered

Internet The Internet (or internet) is the global system of interconnected computer networks that uses the Internet protocol suite (TCP/IP) to communicate between networks and devices. It is a '' network of networks'' that consists of private, p ...

connectivity. Entel's privatization began in 1986 and was finalized in 1992. The following year, through a series of transactions, Group Chilquinta acquired the 19.99% ownership of the company. In June 1996, the Board of Directors authorized an increase in capital that allowed the entry of

Telecom Italia Gruppo TIM, legally TIM S.p.A. (formerly Telecom Italia S.p.A.), also known as the TIM Group in English, is an Italian telecommunications company with headquarters in Rome, Milan, and Naples, (with the Telecom Italia Tower) which provides fixed ...

, which acquired another 19.99%, sharing control with the Group Chilquinta. During the first half of 1999, the company increased its capital by $215 million. This contribution came from

Quiñenco Quiñenco S.A is a Chile-based company engaged in the investment in companies active in the industrial and financial sectors. It is one of Chile’s largest business conglomerates, with US$71 billion in assets under management. Founded in 1957 by ...

group. In March 2001,

bought shares of Chilquinta and Matte group, reaching a 54.76% stake. Entel's stock is a big part of the Chilean stock market. Shares were held by pension funds, which at the end of 2004 comprised 25.6% of the shares of the company. Additionally, international funds and individuals acquired shares. In 2005, Chilean group Almendral S.A. gained control of Entel Group through its Altel Inversiones subsidiary, holding 54.76 percent of the company. In 2006 Entel sold its entire share in Americatel Central America SA and their direct and indirect subsidiaries, BVI Holding Isela Inc. under contract Stock Purchase Agreement ("SPA"). In April 2013 Entel started the acquisition process of Nextel del Perú operations valued on US$400 million. The process ended on the second semester of 2013. On 22 October 2022, Entel announced that the company will sell its fiber optic assets to ON*NET Fibra for US$358 million. As part of the deal, Entel would continue to offer internet services for residences on ON*NET's fiber optic network.

Structure

Entel is a corporation with several subsidiaries: * Entel Phone * Entel TV HD * Entel Data Center * Entel Call Center * Entel Internet

References

{{Reflist, 30em Telecommunications companies of Chile Telecommunications companies established in 1964 Chilean companies established in 1964 Chilean brands Companies listed on the Santiago Stock Exchange