LIMA (WiMAX Day). The Ministry of Transport and Communications (MTC) in Peru announced its plan to launch an auction next month for spectrum suitable for WiMAX services, according to BNamericas, citing a ministry statement. ProInversion, the state agency for promoting private investment, will be in charge of the auction, which covers spectrum in the 2500MHz ~ 2692MHz frequency band. The Deputy Minister of Communications Cayetana Aljovín Gazzani said that the bidding for the WiMAX services falls within the government’s plans for promoting private investment for expansion of Internet connections by 2010. According to BNamericas, the MTC plans to launch four more broadband tenders in 2008 that will primarily target rural localities. “Promoting access to broadband Internet will remain a priority for the communications sector…to benefit [our] society as a whole,” said Gazzani.

The American networking infrastructure supplier Cisco Systems recently estimated in its Broadband Barometer study, produced in conjunction with tech consultancy IDC, that Peru ended the first half of 2007 with 546,658 broadband connections.