Digitel is a

mobile phone A mobile phone or cell phone is a portable telephone that allows users to make and receive calls over a radio frequency link while moving within a designated telephone service area, unlike fixed-location phones ( landline phones). This rad ...

company in

Venezuela Venezuela, officially the Bolivarian Republic of Venezuela, is a country on the northern coast of South America, consisting of a continental landmass and many Federal Dependencies of Venezuela, islands and islets in the Caribbean Sea. It com ...

, and the country's first to deploy a

GSM The Global System for Mobile Communications (GSM) is a family of standards to describe the protocols for second-generation (2G) digital cellular networks, as used by mobile devices such as mobile phones and Mobile broadband modem, mobile broadba ...

network and to establish a per second charging scheme. Early in 2007, Digitel surpassed 3 million subscribers and is currently placed third, behind

CANTV CANTV () is the state-run telephone and internet service provider in Venezuela. It was one of the first telephone service enterprises in the country, founded in 1930. The largest telecommunications provider in Venezuela, it was privatized in 19 ...

Movilnet CANTV () is the state-run telephone and internet service provider in Venezuela. It was one of the first telephone service enterprises in the country, founded in 1930. The largest telecommunications provider in Venezuela, it was privatized in 19 ...

and Telefonica's Movistar. Digitel's growth has remained steady. Digitel currently provides wireless data transmission capabilities through its GSM–GPRS and high speed EDGE network. In 2007 Digitel deployed an

UMTS The Universal Mobile Telecommunications System (UMTS) is a 3G mobile cellular system for networks based on the GSM standard. UMTS uses Wideband Code Division Multiple Access, wideband code-division multiple access (W-CDMA) radio access technolog ...

network on its existing 900 MHz spectrum.. In 2000, after receiving government approval, Digitel sold 56.56% of its stocks to Telecom Italia Mobile, changing its name to Digitel TIM. Digitel's network originally only covered Venezuela's central region, reaching around 44% of the entire population; however, in January 2006, a request to the government to approve merger with Venezuela's two other GSM networks (Digicel and Infonet)Digitel, Digicel e Infonet solicitan convertirse en operador nacional
to achieve full national coverage, and in May 2006 the company was acquired entirely by the Televenco group together with the two other operators, after which the company's name changed to its current: Digitel GSM. The company began a network expansion program in July 2006, and by the end of the year more than 1,070 radio bases had been installed, 7 switches in

Caracas Caracas ( , ), officially Santiago de León de Caracas (CCS), is the capital and largest city of Venezuela, and the center of the Metropolitan Region of Caracas (or Greater Caracas). Caracas is located along the Guaire River in the northern p ...

Valencia Valencia ( , ), formally València (), is the capital of the Province of Valencia, province and Autonomous communities of Spain, autonomous community of Valencian Community, the same name in Spain. It is located on the banks of the Turia (r ...

Puerto La Cruz Puerto La Cruz () is a port city located in Anzoátegui State, in Venezuela. It is the seat of the Juan Antonio Sotillo Municipality. The city has road connections to the state capital, Barcelona, to Lecheria and to Guanta. Geography The cit ...

and

Maracaibo Maracaibo ( , ; ) is a city and municipality in northwestern Venezuela, on the western shore of the strait that connects Lake Maracaibo to the Gulf of Venezuela. It is the largest city in Venezuela and is List of cities in Venezuela by population ...

, stretching its GPRS/EDGE network in the West of the country and offering communication, data, information and entertainment to all its customers. Early in 2010, Digitel got its 3G/WCDMA ( HSDPA, HSUPA,

/ WCDMA) network working all over the country, becoming the fastest provider despite its slow growth. Lately in 2013, Digitel got its 4G/LTE ( LTE network working in mayor cities such as Caracas, Maracay, Valencia among others, becoming this way the first operator in Venezuela offering LTE capabilities. The phones sold with 4G uSIM were BlackBerry Z10 and Huawei Ascend P1 LTE, both supporting 1800Mhz network.

References

External links

DigitelDigitel GSM Coverage Map, Venezuela
{{Venezuelan mobile operators Telecommunications companies of Venezuela Telecommunications companies established in 1995 Venezuelan brands Companies based in Caracas