Telefónica to put US$3bn into Peru in 2016-20

Telefónica will invest US$3bn in Peru from 2016-20, company president José María Álvarez-Pallete said during a visit to the country.

In a statement, Álvarez-Pallete underscored that the company has invested US$9.2bn in telecommunications infrastructure in Peru since its market debut in 1994.

In July, Telefónica became the first company to launch LTE Advanced technology with carrier aggregation, combining the 700MHz and AWS spectrum bands.

Peru's mobile telephony market has become one of the most competitive in the region, so much so that América Móvil unit Claro had to acquire two struggling operators to gain access to their 4G spectrum, given that Claro had missed out in a spectrum auction several years earlier.

Telefónica's biggest rival was also granted spectrum in the 700MHz band in July.

Peru was fifth ranked market in the region in terms of LTE penetration in Q1, according to data from consultancy Ovum, cited by 5G Americas.