ANTEL

The Administración Nacional de Telecomunicaciones (ANTEL, literally "National Administration of Telecommunications") is Uruguay's government-owned telecommunications company, founded in 1974 as a separate legal entity after spinning off the telecommunications division of UTE, which had the monopoly of landline telephony since 1931. The company has a monopoly of landline telephony and data services in the country. They also provide mobile phone services (in direct competition with Claro and Movistar) and Internet-related services, being the only provider of ADSL and land-line data services because of the monopoly situation.

History

In 1992, under the presidency of Luis Alberto Lacalle, a privatization of all government-owned companies was attempted. However, a later referendum revoked the privatizations law,[1] Pluna being the only company to be successfully privatized to Varig. Antel enjoys a monopoly on land lines in Uruguay, including voice-only lines as well as DSL and fiber internet.

Private competition

Antel has been granted monopoly power over most forms of communication carriage to consumers in Uruguay, clearly constraining the communication offerings by private companies:

There are two notable communication technologies that have shown potential for increased private participation in recent years:

Internet over cable

In early August 2016 the Uruguayan supreme court issued a ruling in favor of cable TV company Monte Cablevideo S.A, declaring unconstitutional the law that made it unlawful for cable TV companies to offer Internet service. If this stood, it would represent an historic opening of the hitherto rigidly controlled Uruguayan wired Internet market, a sort of fall of the Berlin Wall in Uruguayan telecom. It would mean that for the first time in Uruguayan history consumers would have a choice of providers when ordering wired Internet service. It would also mean that Uruguay would join the almost unanimous majority of nations in the Americas where cable-delivered Internet is on the menu of Internet access choices (Cuba would be the only remaining holdout.[7]) At the end of August 2016 the supreme court issued a second similar ruling on the same matter, this time authorizing a different cable company - Nuevo Siglo - to provide the services in question (the Uruguayan legal system does not make the ruling in favor of a company apply to all other companies in that situation.)[8] Nevertheless, for almost 7 years after those supreme court rulings cable TV companies continued to be precluded by the government from offering Internet services in Uruguay. But in June 2022 the government of Luis Lacalle Pou announced it would authorize selected cable companies to start providing Internet service, a historical reversal which would effectively bust Antel's erstwhile monopoly on wired Internet services.[9] Indeed, in September 2023 three cable companies (TCC, Montecable and Nuevo Siglo) started offering Internet service in the La Blanqueada neighborhood of Montevideo.[10]

Starlink

Most of Uruguay's landmass is rural and there are remote locations where Internet service is not currently available. As of February 2024 Starlink was already approved and available in most of South America's landmass, including Brazil, Chile, Paraguay, Perú, Colombia and Ecuador[11] During a 20 March press conference, Argentina announced that it was approving the system as well. Two days later the Uruguayan government quickly followed suit announcing its approval. Thus Uruguay basically repeated the "last democracy to sign up" (Venezuela thus excluded) performance it displayed in approving cable Internet service (see above.) Antel's labor union (Sutel) went on the record opposing the approval of Starlink, as it opposed the abovementioned Internet over cable service.[12]

In December 2023 the Uruguayan government had approved the operation of Amazon's Kuiper satellite service, but only for sale of Internet services to corporations. As of that date Amazon hadn't launched any production satellites and thus in practice had no Internet service to offer.[13]

For information on specific competitors to Antel in the services where competition is allowed, see Telecommunications in Uruguay

type	State-owned
genre	Telecommunications
foundation	1974 (spun off from UTE)
location city	Montevideo
location country	Uruguay
area served	Worldwide
key people	Alejandro Paz (President)
revenue	US$1.1 billion (FY2023)
owner	Government of Uruguay
divisions	Antel Moviles, Antel Datos e Internet
homepage	http://www.antel.com.uy

History

Telecommunications tower

Satellite telecommunications

Private competition

Internet over cable

Starlink

Financial performance

Controversies

External links

References