Latin America’s Answer to ‘Internet for Everyone

Siglo is a wireless internet service provider (ISP) for emerging middle class homes in Latin American cities. Isaac and Joel Phillips, the founders, have worked in Latin America for almost a decade, focusing on digital and financial inclusion. Siglo is building its own wireless infrastructure with the belief that everyone should have access to fast, unlimited internet. This consistent access is a catalyst to upward economic mobility. There are 170M households in Latin America, of which 136M are urban. More than 68M of these are under-connected or not connected. For these homes, the internet is capped and slow or too expensive. Incumbent telcos have focused on creating services for the upper classes, and have largely ignored the needs of the emerging middle class, where fast home broadband used to be a luxury. Today, it’s a basic necessity. Lack of consistent access also means that the majority of the population in these markets still don’t transact online. Many are unbanked and have never made purchases or paid bills online. Siglo began in one of the densest neighbourhoods in Latin America in a suburb of Mexico City with a service that cost only $5 USD a week, and since the launch in February already has more than 1,000 paying households.