Dominican Republic - Indotel and ETG-TEL inaugurate wireless IPTV

RESTAURACIÓN, Dajabón — A new-telephone company that will offer “Triple Play” (wireless IPTV) will be inaugurated on Friday, August 1st in this town of eight thousand inhabitants, located in the border province of Dajabón. The secretary of state and chairman of Indotel, Dr. José Rafael Vargas, reported that the new company will specialize in providing wireless IPTV (television, telephony and residential broadband Internet) in rural Dominican Republic.

He explained that at first the offer will be available in Restauración, Dajabón, and then be extended to 500 communities in the country. ETG-Tel is a division of Espinal Technology Group, owned by Espinal Eudes, and is promoted under the trade name “Triple Play”.

ETG-Tel said that the service would be offered over WiMax at 2.4-2.5 GHz, with supplementary access by Wi-Fi. “The service will have nationwide coverage in rural areas where there is no telephone connectivity and bandwidth,” said Vargas.

In December, the company was left out of the bidding for a U.S. $7 million grant for Universal Service conducted by Indotel. It went ahead anyway with the IPTV project taking charge of 100% of the investment.

Since six months ago, the company has been testing IPTV in Restauración (bordering Haiti), in Puerto Plata province (north coast of the country) and in Azua province (in the South). The service will be inaugurated on 1st August at a ceremony to be attended by businessmen, authorities and investors in the sector.