Developing Telecoms | Companies and Markets: Chile offers Latin America’s highest fixed telecoms rate

21 May 2012

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Companies and Markets: Chile offers Latin America’s highest fixed telecoms rate

Tuesday, 25 August 2009 11:06

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With a fixed-line penetration rate of 21%, Chile can now boast the highest such rate in Latin America. The newest report from Companies and Markets covers a variable market where fixed-line is successful but broadband has to date been disappointing in terms of growth.

Santiago's financial district, Vitacura As the most developed telecoms market in Latin America in the view of Companies and Markets, Chile has often followed the trends seen in more developed regions, with mobile growth eventually leading to falling demand for fixed-line services. Indeed, its 21% fixed-line penetration rate had been the highest in Latin America but strong growth from markets such as Venezuela - and the already high rate seen in Costa Rica - mean that its status had been falling as interest in fixed-line services did actually decline.

And yet the fixed-line market has staged something of a comeback with slow, cautious increases in the number of lines in service. Given that the mobile market is well on its way to 100% penetration, this has come as something of a surprise to Companies and Markets. The firm’s Chile Telecommunications Report Q3 2009 sees its forecasts upgraded accordingly but it does anticipate the overall impact being one of decline, seeing lower than 20% penetration by the end of 2013, the forecast period. The strong competition in the market and expansion of bundled services and alternative call packages will do much to increase the interest in fixed lines maintaining the market in the short term.

Broadband to grow despite recent slowing

A faster growing area of the market should be the broadband market, but end-of-year figures from Subtel were disappointing, seeing lower than 10% growth. There does not appear to be any major reason behind this although previous fast growth could mean that major cities are reaching saturation point and more remote areas have yet to be reached by broadband infrastructure. The Chilean government awarded a tender to Inverca Telecom to work on this, with its rural broadband programme set to bring services to around 3 million rural Chileans. The company won the tender in March 2009 and does not anticipate using any of the subsidy offered by the government to fund the roll-out. It is expected that the company will use WiMAX to expand broadband infrastructure given Inverca’s partnership with Malaysia’s Packet One, a WiMAX operator.

Given the focus on the mobile market in its last update, Companies and Markets has left the mobile market data analysis section unchanged this quarter although the mobile market overview and operator data tables have been fully updated. Mobile forecasts have also been revised to reflect the latest data.

In this quarter’s report, Companies and Markets has focused attention on developments in the fixed-line and broadband markets, with new services and companies covered, as well as analysis of the competition present. A review of some major developments in the fixed-line and broadband markets includes the abolition of tariff ceilings in the fixed-line market and the introduction of fibre-optic services in Santiago.

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