State of play: Chile's telecommunications market

5G connections in Chile grew 72.5% in the 12 months ending June to 4.83mn. 

4G accesses, meanwhile, fell 8.3% to 16.9mn but remained the most common technology.

Mobile internet connections (3G+4G+5G) totaled 22.6mn, according to the latest statistics from regulator Subtel.

Entel led the number of 5G connections with 2.2mn, followed by Movistar with 1.3mn and WOM with 1.29mn.

In 4G, Entel led with 5.3mn lines, followed by WOM (4.1mn), Claro (3.8mn) and Movistar (3mn).

While operators prepare to shut down the 2G network, connections using this technology fell 21.8% annually to 155,519.

The Chilean market had 26.9mn mobile lines for a penetration rate of 133.8% at end-June. There was a 0.23% fall in post-paid subscribers to 18.7mn while prepaid users grew 3.45% to 8mn.

Taking into account all technologies, Entel continues to lead the mobile market with a 30.8% share, followed by Movistar with 28.1%, WOM with 20.5% and Claro with 18.6%. Next came VTR with 1.28% followed by Mundo and Virgin Mobile.

FIXED INTERNET

Broadband fiber optic connections grew 6% in the 12 months to 3.2mn, accounting for 70.3% of all fixed internet lines.

Cable modem broadband connections rose 1% to 1.2mn while legacy technologies such as Wimax and ADSL fell 5.4% and 52.2%, respectively.

Movistar holds the lead in fiber optics with 1.3mn lines, followed by Mundo with 898,741 and Entel, which has 302,343 from its subsidiary Entelphone and another 28,889 from Entel itself.

Telsur has 181,467 connections, followed by VTR with 122,156.

Starlink satellite broadband grew 49.4% to 57,655 connections while Hughes satellite service recorded 7,450 connections.

If all technologies are considered, Movistar led with 29.3% of the market, followed by VTR with 23.3% – the company is a leader in HFC networks. Next came Mundo (19.4%), Entel (8.1%), Claro (6.8%) and GTD (6.7%).

Of broadband connections in Chile, 95.3% had a speed of between 100Mbps and 1Gbps.

LANDLINES AND TV

Pay-TV subscriptions fell 5.7% to 3.01mn. Satellite networks experienced the biggest drop, down 14.4% to 837,084 connections. Wireline TV subscriptions ended June at 2.17mn, down 1.8% year-on-year.

VTR led with 28.8% of the market, followed by Movistar with 20.7% and DirecTV with 19.1%.

Fixed telephone lines fell 10.3% to 1.86mn.