Liberty Latin America (NASDAQ:LILA) announced additional build-out plans for its operations in Chile. As Liberty Latin America upgrades broadband connectivity across its markets, revamped plans include adding or upgrading approximately 200,000 homes in Chile this year, an additional 50,000 homes compared to previous expectations. This brings the total estimated additions or upgrades across all of Liberty Latin America's markets to at least 450,000 homes for 2019.
Guillermo Ponce, chief executive officer of VTR, said: "We are excited about extending our new build and upgrade plans for this year and see tremendous opportunity beyond 2019 in further expanding our footprint to the rest of Chile. A major goal of Liberty Latin America is to bring high-speed connectivity to as many people as possible. Importantly, this is the beginning of further construction into areas where we had previously not ventured, and we will bring the fastest broadband in the region to these new homes."
Chris Noyes, chief financial officer of Liberty Latin America, said: "We consistently evaluate new build and upgrade opportunities and are pleased with the financial returns we deliver through these programs. Due to the excellent work by our engineering teams to reduce new build and upgrade costs per home across LLA and given the sizable VTR market opportunity, we are happy to accelerate plans to bring broadband to as many citizens of Chile as possible, without changing our existing guidance for capital expenditures in 2019."
The build-out strategy in Chile is consistent with the company's overall ambition to expand the provision of high-speed connectivity across the region.