How is VTR's fiber optic deployment plan progressing in Chile?

Chilean cable and mobile telecoms operator VTR exceeded its goal of connecting 400,000 more homes in Chile last year and as of this month the company had over 571,000 clients connected with fiber.

"There are plans to continue expanding our network, which already exceeds 4,400km throughout the country," VTR corporate affairs director Lorena Schmitt told BNamericas.

Although the company preferred not to outline its fiber deployment plans for 2022, under its merger agreement with Claro, the two companies promised to promote deployment of fiber optics and reach 6mn homes passed by 2025.

The operation is currently being reviewed by the national economic prosecutor's office (FNE).

In the meantime, VTR is committed to continue investing in network capacity to ensure it can sustain its clients' traffic. It will also be building new fiber optic zones throughout the country, Schmitt said.

"Our commitment is to return to our path of growth, which has always been part of our DNA," he added.

In this context, the company launched a new tariff strategy: FINIX, which involves fixed internet plans with speeds of 500Mbps at 9,990 pesos (US$12.40) per month "forever".

The new offering is aimed directly at growth from new clients who enter the fixed internet market for the first time, Schmitt said.

The proposal was quickly replicated by WOM, which offers 300Mbps connections at 7,990 pesos per month. Entel and Movistar offer connections of 300Mbps at just over 14,000 pesos as a promotional price, while Mundo starts with plans of 500Mbps at 12,425 pesos.

According to the latest data from regulator Subtel, as of September 2021 there were 4.19mn fixed internet lines in Chile, with optical fiber accounting for 52.9% of the total, ahead of HFC cabling.

VTR had a 29.8% share of the fixed internet market at the end of September, which was a 5.8% year-on-year drop, according to Subtel. That slack was taken up by Movistar, which saw its share grow to 28.8%, up from 26.0% in September 2020, and Mundo, which added 3.5 percentage points to its market share in the same period, reaching 13.5%.

Behind these three are Claro (10.9%), GTD (7.9%) and Entel (6.6%), among others.

CONNECTED SCHOOLS

As of March 2022, VTR had more than 2,000 schools connected as part of a program for the digital inclusion of Chilean schools.

The amount represents 66.6% of the 3,050 total schools included in the plan throughout Chile.

The Connectivity for Education 2030 project is intended to improve the digital inclusion of 10,000 educational establishments that receive contributions from the state, thus benefiting nearly 3.3mn students once all the schools are included in the plans.

VTR is connecting schools with fixed networks or satellite technology in the case of those that are in geographically remote areas without coverage of terrestrial networks.

This is the case of 50 schools in towns such as Farellones in the mountains of the Metropolitan Region and in districts located far from population centers such as Camarones, General Lagos, Putre and Tomé, said Schmitt.