Liberty Puerto Rico doubles down on convergence to revamp business

Liberty Puerto Rico, the Puerto Rican and US Virgin Islands (USVI) subsidiary of Liberty Latin America, launched a revamped offering of convergent fixed and mobile services, as well as a new business approach, to win back customers’ trust. 

Branded Liberty Loop, the offer combines internet and mobile into a single plan with double the previously available broadband speeds, as well as unlimited mobile data at the highest contracted speeds, according to information released by the company. 

The plan also provides a dedicated customer service line and separated in-person service at stores, unlimited calls in the US and Puerto Rico, roaming in 30 Latin American countries and 5G access, among other features. 

The push is a bid to regain customers' trust following problems with service and support in recent months.

“We know we’ve stumbled and failed our customers, and we’re owning up to that,” Eduardo Díaz-Corona, Liberty Puerto Rico’s general manager, was quoted as saying during a news conference last week.

“To earn back the trust of our customers, we have to have the best 5G network, which now covers 95% of the island.”

NEW CHAPTER

In 2020, Liberty acquired for US$1.9bn the mobile operations of AT&T in Puerto Rico and the USVI. 

However, it faced challenges and high subscriber-migration costs related to those operations.

Customers experienced service interruptions due to the business integration and thousands ended up migrating to competing carriers T-Mobile and America Móvil’s Claro.

“Looking to the second half of the year, we anticipate a significant inflection in financial performance as we move past impacts from our Puerto Rico migration and begin to execute on our growth plans in that market, while maintaining healthy positive momentum across the rest of the group,” Liberty Latin America CEO Balan Nair said in a Q2 earnings report.

The restructured bet on convergence also occurs as the company announced it completed a 2023 US$255mn acquisition of spectrum from Echostar (formerly Dish), and 85,000 prepaid mobile subscribers.

As a result, Liberty is adding over 100MHz of spectrum, the prepaid base and an extensive distribution network.

“We have a tremendous opportunity to leverage our full-service products to drive fixed-mobile convergence penetration from current levels of around 25%,” Nair said in a press release about the Dish deal completion.