28 Jun 2011Uruguay Broadband Overview

Uruguay was arguably the first Latin American country to establish an all-digital telephone network in 1995. Unfortunately, due to delayed privatization and monopoly formation, the country lost its technological advantage. Uruguay’s telecom market has been dominated by the state owned operator Administracion Nacional de Telecomunicaciones (Antel). The government opened the sector for competition in long-distance, domestic and international telephony, mobile services and Internet services in 2001.

Since 2001, Uruguay’s mobile market has experienced strong growth and led to Uruguay reporting one of the highest mobile penetration rates in Latin America. In 2009, the government sent a negative signal to the telecommunication market by limiting competition in Uruguay. It cancelled the licence for Mexico-based Telmex for the provisioning of satellite TV services previously issued by the national regulator.

The state-owned incumbent Antel has remained the exclusive local fixed telephony provider in Uruguay. Antel has successfully managed to hold on to its monopoly in most telecoms segments including mobile telephony and Internet services. However, as Uruguay’s telecom market grows alternative operators are beginning to edge into Antel’s space. Similar to Paraguay’s development, the local broadband market in Uruguay is expected to benefit from large-scale investments in mobile technology that will facilitate ubiquitous non-ADSL broadband access.