Empresa Nacional de Telecomunicaciones S.A. (ENTEL)

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What it is

ENTEL is Bolivia’s dominant state-owned telecoms company, headquartered in La Paz and founded on 22 December 1965 by government decree. It operates as a mobile network, fixed-line, internet, and pay-TV provider across the country.

It connects more than 6.7 million mobile users across 21,000-plus localities, and its fibre-to-the-home network now reaches over 600,000 households — a 154% increase over five years. The company’s backbone fibre network exceeds 42,000 kilometres of cable.

Who owns it

On 1 May 2008, ENTEL was nationalised by Supreme Decree; the Bolivian state became the owner of 97% of its shares through the Ministry of Public Works, Services and Housing. The remaining shares — a fraction of roughly 3% — are held by private minority shareholders and trade on the Bolsa Boliviana de Valores (BBV), with individual lots occasionally auctioned; the state stake has never been touched.

Before nationalisation, Italy’s STET — which became Telecom Italia — held 50% of the company and managed it from 1995. That era is firmly closed; ENTEL is today an instrument of national policy, with profits funnelled into Bolivia’s flagship social cash-transfer programmes.

Who runs it

In November 2025, Jorge Francisco Del Solar Bueno took over as General Manager, designated by the head of state and formally introduced by Board Chair José Antonio Uño. Del Solar brings 35 years of private-sector experience to a role that has historically been a political appointment.

The current board, as listed on ENTEL’s official governance page, is chaired by Álvaro Ricardo Bazán Auza, with Pablo Roberto Trigosso Venario as Vice-President and Luisa Marcela Julia Cabrerizo Uzín as Director-Secretary. The board is appointed by the state as controlling shareholder, with a statutory auditor (síndico) also serving on the board.

The money, in plain words

ENTEL pulled in BOB 4,751 million (US$482 million) in revenue for 2024 — the highest in its nearly 60-year history. That was 8% above 2023’s BOB 4,400 million (US$447 mn), beating the previous all-time record set in 2017 by BOB 52 million (US$5 mn).

Net profit — the money left after all costs and social contributions — came to BOB 600 million (US$61 million) for 2024, after the company directed BOB 243 million (US$25 mn) (10% of monthly revenues) directly to Bolivia’s Renta Dignidad pension programme. That works out to a net profit margin of 12.6% (our calculation) — solid for a state utility that is also serving as a social-transfer vehicle.

Since 2013, ENTEL has contributed a cumulative BOB 788 million (US$80 mn) to the Juancito Pinto school stipend and BOB 6,116 million (US$621 mn) to the Renta Dignidad elderly pension.

Because the state owns 97% and channels surplus to welfare programmes rather than paying a market dividend, traditional investor metrics — price-to-earnings ratio and dividend yield — are not meaningful here. What matters is whether the company keeps growing revenue faster than its mandated social charges: in 2024, it did.

What it is doing now

Through the first ten months of 2025, revenue grew 5% year-on-year, with the company projecting full-year income above BOB 5,000 million (US$508 million at the current rate) — which would be another record. ENTEL also signed a memorandum of understanding with TI Sparkle to co-operate on a trans-South American fibre corridor connecting the Atlantic and Pacific coasts.

In February 2025, Bolivia’s president inaugurated a new ENTEL data centre in El Alto, an investment of more than BOB 52 million (US$5.3 million) across 4,500 square metres. The leadership change in November 2025 — bringing in a private-sector veteran as General Manager — is the most significant governance shift in years.

What to watch

• Leadership transition: Del Solar is the first GM drawn from the private sector in the nationalised era; whether he can accelerate investment while satisfying the government’s social mandates will define the next cycle.
• Social-cost drag: The 10% revenue levy for Renta Dignidad is a structural charge that does not shrink as revenue grows — it scales up with it. Cumulative contributions to the Juancito Pinto and Renta Dignidad programmes have reached BOB 6.9 billion (US$701 mn) since 2013.
• Fibre ambition: ENTEL’s declared goal for 2025 is to bring fibre-to-the-home to 100% of Bolivia’s municipal capitals — a capital-heavy target in a country of high altitude and dispersed population.
• Thin market: With roughly 3% of shares freely traded, ENT.BO is not a liquid investment. Price discovery is limited and the stock should be read as a credit and governance story, not an equity trade.

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This is news, not investment advice.