Pay TV and Internet provider DirecTV (a subsidiary controlled by Vrio, which is owned by Grupo Werthein) is moving forward in its plan to expand DFibra in South America. On August 31, the company held an event to launch its fiber to the home service (FTTH) in Colombia.

The development of the plan to provide connectivity by means of fiber optic technology began in late 2021, first in Argentina. Shortly afterwards, the company launched the service in Brazil in mid 2022 (under the brand Sky Fibra), in Peru in May 2023, in Ecuador in July 2023 and, according to an announcement made last August, the service will soon be available in Chile. Moreover, the operator has already applied for a permit to offer fixed Internet in Uruguay and the application is under consideration by the local authorities. At a press conference held in December 2022, Vrio President Darío Werthein and Vrio CEO Mariana Lischner Goldvarg said that the company would expand DFibra throughout South America and highlighted its importance both as a standalone business and as a supplement to its Pay TV services, satellite TV (DTH) and streaming platform (DGo).

DirecTV has been providing fixed Internet in Colombia for some time, but the service was limited and mainly over LTE. Thanks to DFibra, the operator now has an FTTH network with over 1.5 million homes passed and it has made a commitment to double that number within the next few years. The coverage of the service in Colombia initially comprises 13 cities and 17 municipalities, which includes most of the important cities in the country such as Cali, Medellín, Barranquilla, Cartagena, Bucaramanga, Pasto, Cúcuta, Valledupar, Villavicencio, Manizales and Santa Marta. In some cities the service is already active, whereas in others it will be made available during the next few weeks.

The network that will be used by DirecTV to provide the new service in Colombia, as well as in Chile, belongs to On Net Fibra, 60% of which is owned by investment fund KKR and 40% of which is owned by Telefónica. At present, the infrastructure company has over 3 million homes passed with FTTH, distributed among 59 cities.

DirecTV Colombia Country Manager Mariano Díaz de Vivar told local newspaper La República: “We seek to reach over 300,000 customers in the short run and 3 million customers in the long run.”