ICT: The week in 10 stories

PARAGUAY

New ICT minister Alejandro Peralta says he aims to connect 5,000 schools to high speed internet before the end of the current five-year presidential term in 2023.

Peralta was sworn in on Wednesday after President Mario Abdo Benítez signed off on a bill creating the ministry dubbed MITIC.

CUBA

State-owned telecoms operator Etecsa rolled out an internet connectivity service for rural areas costing a third of that in cities, according to its website.

ARGENTINA

América Móvil's Claro announced investments of US$100mn to deploy fiber optics networks in the fiber-to-the-home (FTTH) modality in the province of Córdoba.

BRAZIL

Antitrust regulator Cade approved without caveats the transfer of assets of Porto Seguro Conecta, Brazil's first and largest MVNO, to telecom operator TIM.

PERU

Mexico's TV Azteca is still evaluating its participation in Peru's underused fiber optic backbone project as the South American nation is launching a full review of the network, the company said in a statement.

MEXICO

In an interview at Futurecom, the head of Mexico's telecoms regulator IFT, Gabriel Contreras, talked to BNamericas about the future arrival of 5G in the country.

Mexico has launched a public consultation process on a proposed national infrastructure information system, or SNII, into which companies will enter data on their networks to facilitate the deployment of telecoms and broadcasting systems.

CHILE

President Sebastián Piñera presented a cybercrimes bill after several hacking incidents this year thrust the issue into the public spotlight.

Stakeholders are getting ready for changes in the market structure as Santander says it will end a card contract with the dominant player in the acquisition segment.

URUGUAY

Finally, the central bank rejected a claim against Brazilian banking giant Itaú by Uruguayan payments fintech Paganza over alleged anticompetitive practices.