In a letter to the members of the Fiber Broadband Association (FBA) Latam Chapter , about president, Nelson Saito, pointed out that “our strong momentum has allowed us to grow during the year of 2022 and maintain the motivation to set ourselves new goals and challenges in 2023”. and assured that “the objectives set by the Association were successfully met, throughout 2022”.
Those goals included strengthening the Latin America Chapter as a benchmark for educating the industry., the development of documents with content of interest and best practices, creating resources in conjunction with other organizations, and the growth of committees and groups focused on various tasks, among other.
“Despite the challenges that 2022 brought, taking into account the different political contexts, social and cultural of each of the countries in Latin America, 5 committees were formed, 42 new members joined and 28 companies joined the value proposition offered by the Association in Latin America”, Saito reviewed. In this context, webinar calendars were developed with Latin American leaders, technical articles and publications for Fiber Forward magazine, useful market studies for decision-making by companies in the industry, two leading fiber optic events in the region and new training programs to further educate trainee professionals.
in 2022, The entity's memberships for Latin America grew by 45% compared to 2021. Premier members joined, manufacturers and distributors, network operators and partners, “all companies committed to the implementation of fiber optics and its impact on the economic and social development of the region”, said Saito.
The president of the FBA Latam Chapter particularly highlighted the editions of the Fiber Connect Latam events held in Costa Rica and Colombia; that exceeded the objectives both in attendance and as speakers and exhibitors. He also underlined that, emphasized the importance for members of the entity of having first-hand information. “That is why the study "FTTH Panorama in Latam 2021" was presented., carried out in 18 countries of the region by the firm SMC+”, explained.
The study reveals that since 2016, the number of households with Internet access grew 76%, the 2020-2021 biennium being the one with the greatest impact with 46 million new subscribers and 103 million households that purchased the service.
The report also showed that Colombia ranks fourth among Latin American countries with the highest growth of homes that have fiber optics., registering an increase of 38% new users over the 294% increase in 18 countries during the previous 5 years. Puerto Rico (229%), Peru (49%) and Bahamas (40%), are the countries that lead the list of the largest households contributing to the growth of FTTH.
Other conclusions of the study show that, in the last decade, the region has shown rapid evolution in FTTH, mainly led by Mexico and Brazil. Too, that subscriptions and households have grown by 47% and 29% in 2021, respectively. The market players, have migrated to all-fiber networks and this, has opened a new opportunity to FTTH startups.
“The good news is that governments have understood the importance of their involvement in advancing fiber development and reducing digital exclusion., through the regulations. The region will continue to increase the FTTH footprint with many fiber optic initiatives leading the ecosystem in Latam in the next 10 years”, valued Saito.
Besides, stressed that the advancement of 5G technology, allowing to optimize the work at the pace of globalization. “Thus, humanity will have within its reach, immediately and efficiently, the resolution of factors such as automatic industrialization, the metaverse, chronic disease monitoring, and endless lists framed in medicine, the technology, safe mobility, leisure time and work”, noted.
For those who are focused on the development of fiber optics and for the entire team of the Fiber Broadband Association in Latin America, the success of 5G is a “tremendous opportunity to connect different nations with fiber broadband and provide digital equity to all Latin American countries”, assured the president of the FBA Latam Chapter.
Finally and as a forecast for 2023, Nelson Saito expressed: “We are at the beginning of one of the most exciting moments in our industry., since we have a real opportunity not only to accelerate the deployment of fiber broadband networks to guarantee digital equity, but also to allow each community to take advantage of the economic and social benefits that only fiber can offer”.
