Liberty Latin America set on revamping Puerto Rico operations

Liberty Latin America has confirmed its commitment to improving its Puerto Rican operations following a difficult 2024.

The company’s Puerto Rican business faced challenges last year due to postpaid disconnections, billing issues, and high subscriber migration costs after acquiring AT&T's Puerto Rican business in 2020.

“We are determined to rebuild this business in 2025,” CEO Balan Nair said during the company’s fourth-quarter earnings call.

In the prepaid segment, Liberty was able to add more lines than it lost for three consecutive months. The company also reported improvements in key operating indicators, including customer loyalty (measured by net promoter score, or NPS) and a reduction in disconnections.

Last year, Liberty Latin America further strengthened its position by completing a US$255mn acquisition of spectrum from EchoStar, along with 85,000 prepaid mobile subscribers.

Speculation remains over potential mergers and acquisitions (M&A) in Puerto Rico after Nair declined to confirm or deny any ongoing discussions.

Rumors have circulated on social media suggesting that Liberty Latin America is considering selling its Puerto Rican business to US operators Verizon or Comcast. However, Nair said: “If we were going to do something, we would have said it on this call, so there’s nothing going on there.”

“We're focused on fixing the business and staging a really strong comeback in Puerto Rico,” he added. “I think it’s going to be a great asset for anybody.”

Nair also dismissed rumors regarding Liberty Latin America’s potential interest in acquiring Telefónica’s operations in Argentina or Peru.

“I'm 100% focused on 2025 and on addressing the challenges we faced in 2024. We’ve built a strong team and made several changes in the fourth quarter and earlier this year to put Liberty Puerto Rico on a different trajectory,” he said.

Liberty Puerto Rico reported 4Q2024 revenue of US$317mn, reflecting a 13% year-on-year decline. Residential fixed revenue was down 2%, driven by lower ARPU, while mobile revenues dropped 20% compared with the same period of 2023 due to both subscriber losses and lower ARPU.

The company’s operating result (Oibda) stood at US$80mn, which was a 24% year-on-year decline.

Capex plans

Across all its markets, Liberty Latin America plans to allocate 14% of its revenue to capex in 2025 and 13% in 2026, following the near completion of a six-year copper migration project.

The company does not plan to upgrade its hybrid HFC network, as it is already capable of delivering gigabit broadband services.

Additionally, Liberty Latin America is preparing to deploy 5G services in Costa Rica after acquiring spectrum in the last auction. The company also expects to roll out next-generation mobile technology in new markets within the next 24 months.

“We still have a whole bunch of 3G handsets in those areas, so it makes no sense for us to roll out 5G just yet,” Nair said.