The state of play in Chile's telecom market

Chile had over 2mn 5G lines at the end of 2022, just over a year after the technology was launched in the country.

Mobile penetration reached 133% with 26.4mn subscribers, according to the latest data from regulator Subtel.

However, mobile internet accesses (3G, 4G and 5G) totaled 22.4mn, an annual reduction of 0.9%, the statistics show. Mobile internet traffic grew 29% last year, the watchdog said.

Internet accesses via smartphones increased 0.6% while USB mobile broadband accesses fell 35.4%.

Machine-to-machine connections represented 3.1% of total mobile internet connections with 699,282 accesses, down 3.8%.

Local company Entel led the mobile internet market with a 34.7% share. It was followed by WOM, which grew 5% last year to 25.4%. Movistar was in third place with 21.2%, followed by Claro with 16.9%, Subtel figures show.

Entel was also the main operator in the mobile telephony market, with a 32.9% share. In second place was Movistar with 25.7%, followed by WOM and Claro. The four operators had 98.4% of the market as of December 2022.

FIXED INTERNET

Fixed internet accesses totaled 4.46mn as of December 2022, up 4% from a year earlier.

The percentage of households with fixed internet was 62.6%.

Most of the connections were fiber optic (66%) with 2.9mn, followed by hybrid fiber and cable (HFC) networks with 29.3% and 1.3mn.

ADSL copper connections represented 1.7% while other technologies, including satellite connections, accounted for 3%.

Movistar was the operator with the largest fixed market share with 31.1% of all lines. Thanks to the Onnet wholesale fiber optic joint venture, the company dominates in the fiber market with 45% of accesses.

Movistar saw annual growth of 9.6% in fixed internet.

Last year, Onnet announced the acquisition of Entel's fiber optics. The operation is being reviewed by competition authority FNE.

Behind Movistar is cable market leader VTR, with 25.2% of accesses, down 7.7% compared to end-2021. VTR had 77% of the HFC accesses.

The company recently formed a joint venture with Claro, and together the two would exceed 32% of the fixed internet market.

In third place is Mundo with 16.9% of total accesses. The operator is the second among the providers of fiber to the home with 25.5% of the market, behind Movistar.

Grupo GTD and Entel had 7.5% and 6.9% of the fixed internet market, respectively.

PAY TV AND LAND LINES

Fixed telephony accesses have been on a downward trend since 2016 and dropped 11.7% last year. This reduction has been partially cushioned by the bundling of services.

Chile ended 2022 with 2.2mn land lines, according to Subtel.

Pay TV subscriptions fell 4.1% to 3.3mn, reaching 52% of households.

VTR had the largest market share with 28.3% of total subscribers, followed by Movistar with 20.7% and DirecTV and Claro with 19.9% and 9.6%, respectively.