Telefonica Brazil is moving forward with plans to expand its Fiber to the Home (FTTH) coverage to about 1 million homes this year with an emphasis on the Sao Paulo region.
Already, Telefonica Brazil has wired up 400,000 homes with FTTH, 20,000 of which are currently using the service, but would like to increase the subscriber base to 70,000 users by the end of this year. Ultimately, the provider wants an installed base of 1 million subscribers by 2015.
The FTTH expansion will be funded by a $126 million investment plan from its parent Telefonica (NYSE: TEF). In addition Telefonica, a TeleGeography report citing unconfirmed sources revealed that Telesp has signed an 'untied' loan agreement with the Japan Bank for International Cooperation (JBIC).
This latest FTTH drive follows an earlier announced plan by Telefonica to increase capex spending by 52 percent in Brazil over the next three years and combine its wireline and wireless holdings into one unit.
Telefonica Brazil's bet on FTTH comes at a time when broadband subscribership continues to rise. According a report issued by Associacao Brasileira de Telecomunicacoes (Telebrasil), Brazil's wireline broadband rose 20.5 percent to 14 million subscribers since 2010.