Grupo Werthein’s Vrio Division, which manages operators DirecTV in Spanish-speaking South America and Sky in Brazil, offers its Internet service through a Fiber to the Home network that has already totalled 40 million homes passed throughout the region. The information was revealed by Vrio FTTH Partnerships Manager Mariano Peralta at NPlay 2024, an event held by Grupo Convergencia in Córdoba City from March 14 to March 15.
Vrio’s strategy regarding its Internet service does not consist in deploying its own networks, but in hiring wholesale optic fiber networks in each country. First adopted in Argentina in 2021, the strategy has already extended to five other countries: Brazil (2022), Peru (2023), Ecuador (2023), Colombia (2023) and Chile (2023). Another Latin American market in which DirecTV offers Satellite TV is Uruguay, where the company has applied for an Internet license without success. According to information revealed to TAVI Latam by the company, half of the above-mentioned 40 million homes passed are located in Brazil.
Vrio has partnered with a total of twelve wholesalers throughout the region. Its partners are Meditel, Metrotel and American Tower, in Argentina; FiBrasil, I-Systems, V.tal and American Tower, in Brazil; Win, in Peru; Punto Net, in Ecuador; Velonet and OnNet Fibra, in Colombia and On Net Fibra, in Chile.
While talking to TAVI Latam, Peralta noted: “The main capitals and urban centers in developed countries are working with shared networks, a smart method to make resources more efficient. This is very much the case in Latin America, where the digital divide affects 200 million people. The development of solid technological infrastructures that make it possible to connect citizens with a wide range of digital services, thus enhancing the efficiency and productivity of their lives, is a joint challenge for the industry as a whole and for articulation between public and private sectors.”
DirecTV had its own stand at NPlay. “We received the visit of over 40 ISPs, which were given advice and with which we set agendas for the future with a view to going ahead with connectivity proposals”, company spokespeople told TAVI Latam.
