Comsat International Inc. was tapped by the Colombian government to bring telecommunications access to the public sector throughout the country as part if its Compartel III program. Compartel is a government universal-service program that aims to install payphones in rural communities and in community telecenters, and it also want to provide access to the Internet in all municipal headquarters and main towns. Like a similar program in the United States, the program’s funding comes from mandatory contributions from telcos, wireless and long-distance license fees coupled with money from FONADE, the national economic development fund. Compartel also is subsidizing this lower-income program with fees gathered from higher-income neighborhoods.

Comsat was awarded a contract valued at more than $20 million to provide a network consisting of VSAT and fixed wireless technologies. The satellite provider said it will use wireless technology provided by Airspan Networks [AIRN] within its network.