Spotlight: The state of play in Chile’s telecom sector

5G, which was activated in Chile on December 16, making the country the first in Latin America to have the technology, reached over half a million users in the first four months of service, official stats show.

The technology achieved at the end of April the same number of 4G connections made in its first 12 months.

The 5G figures are one of the highlights of the most recent statistics report on the Chilean telecoms sector, released by regulator Subtel.

The stats also show fiber continues to grow at an accelerated pace, having become the main fixed internet technology in the country, while fixed telephony keeps declining.

Overall, Chile ended April with 59mn telecom accesses, slightly down from the 59.4mn reported at end-2021.

BNamericas provides an overview of the market, based on Subtel's January-April figures. Some of the stats have not been updated, and are as at the end of March.

MOBILE: 5G SKYROCKETS

5G accesses in Chile grew at an accumulated growth rate of 996% in the first four months of the year to 545,323 in April, according to the watchdog.

Although 5G traffic still represented only 0.7% of total mobile traffic as of that month, growth in the four-month period was 1,359%, exceeding 2G traffic by almost 6 times, according to Subtel.

Overall, Chile had 26.8mn internet connections (fixed, 3G, 4G and 5G) as of end-April, Subtel said.

In March, there were 22.6mn, up 5.2% year-over-year, with 4G representing 20.49mn, an increase of 6.7% over March 2021, and 5G 328,218. 

Meanwhile, 2G and 3G accesses dropped by 27.7% and 26.2%, respectively, to 127,000 and 1.44mn by March-end.

The four largest mobile operators in the country account for nearly 99% of the overall mobile market (mobile internet plus 2G). 

Entel grew to 32.4%, from 32.3% in March 2021, and Movistar to 25.2%, from 24.4%. WOM went to 20.5% from 20.4% while Claro fell to 20.1%, from 21% in March last year.

Next come VTR, Virgin Mobile, Mundo, Simple, Telsur and Netline, all with less than 1% each.

Entel also led 4G with 7.16mn of all connections, up 8.7% from March 2021, followed by WOM (5.21mn, up 0.3%), Movistar (4.22mn, up 2%) and Claro (3.52mn, up 2.4%).

In 5G, Subtel reported Entel had 212,888 accesses by end-March and WOM 115,330. The regulator did not detail Telefónica's and Claro's 5G accesses.

Finally, smartphones are the dominant form of mobile internet consumption in the country.

FIXED BROADBAND

Chile had 4.37mn fixed internet accesses in April, up 9% year-over-year, with the service reaching 61.8% of the country’s households.

Fiber grew by 40.7% year-to-April to account for 59.7% of the total. Meanwhile, cable modem represented 34.3% of fixed internet accesses and ADSL 2.5%, said Subtel.

The fixed broadband market is led by Telefónica, with 28.7% by end-March, up by 15.4% from March 2021. 

Next comes VTR, with 28.1% (down 5.3%), Mundo (15.1% up 44.5%), Claro (10.4% down 7.7%), GTD (7.8% up 7.6%) and Entel (6.7% up 8.8%).

In fiber, Movistar led with 45.4% of all accesses using that technology in March, followed by Mundo with 25.8%. Telsur appears at a distant 8.5%, trailed by Entel (7.1%).

Around 83% of Chile’s fixed broadband connections comprise speeds of 100Mbps-1Gbps, according to Subtel.

FIXED TELEPHONY AND PAY TV

Overall, the country had 2.49mn fixed lines in service as of March, down 2.8% year-over-year, for a 12.59% penetration rate.

The segment is led by Telefónica, which had a 34.8% market share, followed by VTR (21.9%), Entel (19.1%), GTD (12.9%) and Claro (9%). 

Telefónica and Claro saw the biggest drops in the 12 months, of 6.7% and 6.4%, respectively, while VTR grew by 3.6%.

In pay TV, the number of subscriptions grew 2.4% year-over-year in April, reaching a 54.1% penetration rate, according to Subtel.

In March, there were 3.42mn subscribers, up 3.5% on 12 months earlier. The service was available to 17.3% of the population, and over 60% of households.

The segment has been growing since June 2020, after several months of declines. 

The resumption coincides with the pandemic and the rise of fiber, as most of the new accesses are related to fixed broadband bundles, particularly IP TV (via fiber).

VTR remained the leader in pay TV, with 30.2% of all subscribers (down from 32.3% in March 2021) followed by DirecTV with 20.7% (down from 22.4%). Movistar had 18.7%, up from 15.6%, and Claro had 10.5%, down from 11.1%.

Of the major players, Mundo was the one with the biggest growth, with a 43.1% base expansion year-to-March, reaching an 8.6% market share.