  FRIPON is an efficient ground-based network for the detection and
characterization of fireballs, which was initiated in France in 2016 with over
one hundred cameras and which has been very successfully extended to Europe and
Canada with one hundred more stations. After seven successful years of
operation in the northern hemisphere, it seems necessary to extend this network
towards the southern hemisphere - where the lack of detection is evident - to
obtain an exhaustive view of fireball activity. The task of extending the
network to any region outside the northern hemisphere presents the challenge of
a new installation process, where the recommended and tested version of the
several sub-systems that compose a station had to be replaced due to regional
availability and compatibility considerations, as well as due to constant
software and hardware obsolescence and updates. In Chile, we have a unique
geography, with a vast extension in latitude, as well as desert regions, which
have generated the need to evaluate the scientific and technical performance of
the network under special conditions, prioritizing the optimization of a set of
factors related to the deployment process, as well as the feasible and
achievable versions of the required components, the geographical location of
the stations, and their respective operational, maintenance, safety, and
communication conditions. In this talk, we will present the current status of
this effort, including a brief report on the obstacles and difficulties
encountered and how we have solved them, the current operational status of the
network in Northern Chile, as well as the challenges and prospects for the
densification of the network over South America.
