Chile Entel ups infrastructure spending

By Monica Vargas

SANTIAGO (Reuters) - Entel ENT.SN, one of Chile's top mobile telephone companies, said on Tuesday it planned to invest $350 million in infrastructure this year, up 25 percent from last year, mostly going to its dynamic mobile business.

Felipe Ureta, Entel's corporate finance manager, told the Reuters Latin America Investment Summit in the Chilean capital, Santiago, that 70 percent of the funds would be spent on improving networks and adding services to its mobile arm Entel

PCS.

"It will be a year of high investment," Ureta said. "Clearly all this investment stems from demand and will satisfy significant requirements of new services that are appearing, both in mobile and fixed line communications."

Entel, which is controlled by local group Almendral CHQ.SN and has a headquarters in Chile and a subsidiary in Peru, invested $280 million in infrastructure in 2007.

"The market expects a good year for Entel ... We are calm. With the economy growing at reasonable rates like those we are seeing, we expect to have pretty good growth in 2008," he added.

The investment plan for this year would be self-financed from company cash flow, he added.

He said Entel was also open to the possibility of investment opportunities outside Chile and Peru, either alone or with partners, in mobile and fixed-line telephony, though said there was nothing concrete on the horizon for now.  Continued...