Chile: Broadband connections up 10% in H1

South America's economy may be in shambles, but it's clear that subscribers like their broadband connections. Case in point is Chile where broadband penetration is currently 9.7 percent--the highest in South America. During the first half of 2009, the number of fixed broadband lines in Chile grew 10.4 percent when compared with the same period in 2008. According to the Cisco Broadband Barometer, Chile had 1.6 million broadband lines as of the end of June, up from 1.46 million as of December 2008.

Leading Chile's broadband charge is the residential market with 85 percent of the fixed broadband connections, while the remaining 15 percent are business connections. To date, 31 percent of Chile's residential homes have a broadband connection. Residential mobile broadband also saw positive growth as subscribers increased 70 percent as of the end of June.

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- Telecompaper has this article