SES and Mexican CFE TEIT Leverage SES-17 Satellite to Enable Free Broadband Hotspots Across Mexico
The Mexican federal agency CFE Telecomunicaciones e Internet para Todos (CFE TEIT) selected SES to deploy more than 1,100 broadband hotspots as part of the Federal Government initiative “Internet para todos” (Internet for everyone). These sites are enabled by the very high throughput Ka-band SES-17 satellite and will benefit communities across the entire Mexican territory by providing free Internet access in public areas, SES announced today.
SES’s Managed Internet via SES-17 is delivered as a fully managed solution to the CFE TEIT, which allows the federal agency to flexibly optimize bandwidth needs as demand changes while reducing the cost and complexity of delivering satellite connectivity. This collaboration sees the second deployment of SES’s capacity under the initiative “Internet para todos” following on from over 1,000 free hotspots enabled via the SES-15 satellite last year.
These Wi-Fi hotspots are installed in strategic places such as public squares, community spaces, schools and hospitals throughout the country to guarantee reliable Internet access for the entire population, especially for the most remote regions and underserved communities. For example, according to the National Statistics and Geography Institute of Mexico (INEGI), only 66.4% of the households in the country had access to broadband in 2021, and in states like Chiapas only 32.6% of the rural population had internet access. As of December 2022, CFE TEIT has installed a total of 55,360 points offering free internet to Mexican people. By January 2023, the Federal Government aims to have 140,000 free Wi-Fi hotspots installed throughout the country.
“Connecting the unconnected remains a vital challenge, as it can help to end isolation and diverse forms of marginalization endured by many communities and individuals in remote areas that are outside the reach of terrestrial infrastructure. At SES, we are very proud to support the CEF TEIT in their mission to connect all the Mexican population and bring reliable connectivity services that can support their productive, academic, and well-being activities,” said Omar Trujillo, Vice President of Network Sales for Americas at SES.