At a glance: Chile's telecommunications market

Chile reached 1.59mn 5G mobile connections at the end of September, a year after launching the technology.

The country registered 22.7mn mobile connections as of end-September, according to the latest data from regulator Subtel. Of these, 19.7mn corresponded to 4G services.

The vast majority of 5G lines (1.48mn) were postpaid.

Entel was the leader in 5G with 737,512 lines or 45.6% of the market. 

It was followed by Telefónica with 459,430 lines and a 29% share. WOM was in third place with 24.6% of the 5G market and 389,581 connections.

Claro, which had 18.4% of the total Chilean mobile market, does not offer 5G. The operator did not acquire spectrum in the 3.5GHz band and only has spectrum in millimeter bands where it can develop a 5G network.

If all the technologies are taken into account (2G, 3G, 4G and 5G), Entel also leads, but with 34.6% of mobile lines, followed by WOM (23.8%), Movistar (21.3%), Claro (18.4%) and VTR Móvil (1.1%). With less than 1% of the market are Virgin and GTD Móvil.

As of September, postpaid represented 77.2% of mobile lines in Chile while prepaid lines stood at 22.8%.

A joint venture between Claro and VTR was recently approved with the aim of combining the former's mobile experience with VTR's fixed services.

BROADBAND

Chile ended September with 4.48mn fixed broadband connections, up 6.7% on a year earlier.

Fiber optic accesses represented more than 60% of the connections at 2.83mn, up 27.8%. Next were HFC networks with 1.42mn.

Part of the fiber optics growth is related to the joint venture between Telefónica and KKR, which planned to close 2022 with 4mn homes passed and which has just bought Entel's fiber operation.

Mundo also has a fiber deployment plan to cover more than 4mn homes while the joint venture between Claro and VTR is expected to be a catalyst for fiber optic investment in the country.

DirecTV, meanwhile, has requested authorization from Subtel to provide broadband services. The operator has a strategy that involves the use of neutral networks for the deployment of its internet services.

PAY TV

As of end-September, Chile had 3.34mn pay-TV subscribers, of which 2.22mn were cable connections and 1.12mn satellite.

Cable subscriptions grew 5.4% in the year while satellite services contracted 14.9% since September 2021.

VTR was the main pay-TV operator with 29% of the market, followed by Telefónica with 20% and DirecTV with 19.8%. Mundo Pacífico had 10.3% of the market and Claro 10.1%.