Chile's telecom market: The state of play

Chile ended 2023 with over 36mn telecommunications accesses, split between fixed internet, mobile telephony, fixed telephony and pay-TV, according to statistics from regulator Subtel.

The figures are part of Subtel’s new annual report on the domestic market, which shows an increase of nearly 200,000 accesses last year.

Mobile telephony and fixed internet both increased in the period, while pay-TV subscriptions and landlines declined, in line with a broader industry trend across Latin America.

As of end-December 2023, Chile reached penetration of 134.8 fixed and mobile internet accesses per 100 inhabitants.

In the mobile segment, 5G subscriptions surged by more than 88%, ending the year at 3.84mn connections.

In satellite broadband, Starlink continues to grow and now leads the way with a 31.6% market share.

BNamericas provides a breakdown of the main statistics below.

MOBILE

Of the 26.7mn mobile accesses in the country as of end-December, more than 22.4mn were for mobile internet (3G, 4G and 5G), which was flat compared with end-2022, according to Subtel.

“2G and 3G connections continue to decline, and the gap between those and 4G connections is expected to increase over the coming years. In any case, the increase in 5G connections is leading to a decline in 4G connections,” Subtel said in the report.

Entel continued to lead the mobile market with 8.6mn subscribers (32% of the total) at the end of December, down 1.5%.

Movistar Chile (Telefónica) was next with 7.1mn lines (26.6% share), up 4.8%. Next was distressed company WOM, which just filed for Chapter 11 protection in the US, which has 5.8mn clients (21.6%), up 1.1%.

Since December 2019, WOM has surpassed Movistar and Claro in 3G+4G connections, becoming the second player in this segment in market share.

Claro Chile (América Móvil) ranked fourth with 4.8mn, down 0.7%, which includes VTR's 300,570 lines following their merger to form ClaroVTR. 

Mundo was in fifth with 137,753 lines, up 70.7%.

FIXED INTERNET

Fixed internet accesses reached 4.52mn as of December 31, up 1.4%, with penetration at 22.6 accesses per 100 inhabitants.

Movistar and the ClaroVTR joint venture are tied with 30.7% of all accesses each, followed by Mundo (18.4%), Entel (7.4%) and GTD (7.1%).

All players except for Mundo and Entel saw declines in their subscriber bases compared with end-2022. Mundo stood out with a 10.7% increase in the 12-month period.

In June 2016, VTR surpassed Movistar in terms of fixed connections, but by end-December 2021, Movistar had moved past VTR. In the last 12 months VTR shed 3.8% of its subscribers while Movistar grew only 0.2% in the same period, according to Subtel.

With regard to technologies, fiber now accounts for 69.4% of Chile’s fixed internet connections, followed by HFC (26.9%), and ADSL cables (0.8%). 

Other technologies accounted for the remaining 2.9%. These include mostly satellite broadband connections, with Starlink appearing for the first time in the lead with 31.6% of accesses, ahead of Entel (31.4%), Claro (27.9%) and Hughesnet (6.5%).

Specifically in fiber broadband, Movistar led with 43.8% of all accesses. Mundo had 26.5%, GTD 9.8%, Entel 8.6%, WOM 6.7%, VTR 3.7% and Claro 0.7%.

Almost half of all Chile's fixed internet connections are in the Metropolitan region and fiber is the leading means of internet access in 15 of Chile's 16 regions.

LANDLINES AND PAY TV

Fixed telephone lines accelerated their decline in 2023. The country ended the year with 1.98mn fixed telephony accesses, down 10.8%.

Overall, fixed telephony began its downward trend in Chile in 2016. Currently there are more commercial fixed telephony lines than residential ones.

“While it is true that the decline has been offset by the bundling of the fixed telephone service with fixed internet, the growth of the latter has not been as strong in 2023 as in the previous two years, which is causing greater falls in fixed telephony,” Subtel wrote.

In pay TV, household penetration reached 47.7% in December 2023 and subscribers decreased by 7% in 2023.

As of end-December 2023, Chile had 3.1mn residential pay-TV subscribers.