OnNet Fibra started operating in Chile with a hundred employees, many of them from the local branch of Telefónica. The Spanish will be the first "customer", although the network "withstands at least three more customers," said José Miguel Torres, General Manager of OnNet Fibra, to Convergencialatina.
The line reaches 2.5 million passed homes, on which 900,000 Telefónica Chile customers have already contracted services. The roadmap contemplates reaching 3.5 million homes passed in less than 18 months, by the end of 2022; and 4 million by the end of 2023 or the beginning of 2024. "The objective is to cover most of the country, not only for the client with whom we started (Telefónica), but for the entire market and without distinction," said Torres.
Only to construct the new line will allocate between US$ 130 million and US$ 140 million. To this one must add an additional US$ 150 million for the operation, maintenance and start-up of OnNet Fibra.
“This network will not only be used for FTTH services. We will also provide point-to-point connections, or for 4G or 5G backhaul deployments to companies,” projected Torres.
“InfraCos” model with which Telefónica ventures into Chile has its antecedent in Brazil, where the Spanish company partnered with CPQD to create FiBrasil, and will soon be replicated in Colombia, where this week the sale of 60% of fiber also to KKR was announced. For the manager of OnNet Fibra, the approach “will be a trend in the sector, because it represents a good opportunity to make available a scarce resource. In general, companies are faced with the dilemma of building or providing customer services. If you decide to build, you have to have know-how, experience, administrative management of permits, and add having to wait for the income of clients,” he concluded.