DirecTV competes in broadband but does not have a fiber optic network of its own, explained Carlos Blanco, analyst for Dataxis.
The company leases last-mile access from several carriers in the region.
Although it only counts a handful of customers in the first quarter of 2024, its potential rose to more than 42.3 million homes in six countries in just a few months.
“This is a huge fiber footprint, at the same level as América Móvil or Telefónica, and marks the size of its ambition. Dataxis forecasts that DirecTV could reach 5 million fiber customers in the next five years,” revealed Blanco.
DirecTV Latin America is the second-largest Pay TV operator in the region and the only major player in the business without its own broadband access network. The company opted for a development via third-party networks.
“The first development was in 2021, in Argentina, but it went massive from the middle of 2023. This option has the advantage of rapid deployment, with almost no CAPEX, and in the context of an oversupply of wholesale access networks,” said Blanco.
In first quarter of 2024, Dataxis estimates that DirecTV had already accumulated a potential of 42.3 million homes passed with fiber in six countries, via 12 operators, and was awaiting approval to enter Uruguay. In the second quarter of the year, the company bought the operation of two ISPs in Brazil.
In just a few months, DirecTV Latin America reached a network size equal to that of the two fiber leaders in the region, each counting more than 40 million homes passed.
“On this fiber footprint, América Móvil has 12.9 million FTTx subscribers and Telefónica has 11 million. This means that these companies have a penetration rate of 32% and 25.8%, respectively,” explained the analyst for Dataxis.