Antel pushing connectivity in Uruguay

Uruguay’s Antel completed a fiber optics rollout and school connectivity, and covered 19 departmental capitals with 5G this year, marking the first time a mobile network was launched almost simultaneously across the country.

Antel invested US$636mn in fiber deployment, 4G and 5G between 2020 and 2023, compared to US$509mn between 2016 and 2019, company president Gabriel Gurméndez told an event.

“We have reached more than 100 remote villages with the signal. Fiber optics today are in inland towns and cities and in the low-income neighborhoods of Montevideo,” he added.

Antel plans to invest US$43mn in 5G. Previously, the company had invested US$270mn in three years in mobile and fixed networks in the interior.

Antel wants to migrate its network from copper to fiber. It deployed fiber optics in 250 locations and reached 170 new ones.

In Montevideo, Antel fiber covers 35 peripheral neighborhoods, while connectivity work is underway in another nine.

Mobile network coverage is expanding in 110 rural locations through 190 new sites. In 2023, some 180,000 homes in the country's interior were migrated to fiber optics. In addition, capacity was improved at 110,000 points in the country.

Recently, the company connected the country’s 1,084 public educational establishments with broadband. Connectivity rocketed in 2020, when 934 educational establishments were connected, compared to 334 in 2019.

Antel operated 2.3mn mobile lines in June, 300,000 more than in 2019. Average traffic per user is 15GB.

Gurméndez highlighted that under his leadership, “Antel grew in all branches, it has more mobile clients, more fixed internet clients, and more telephone clients. We won the portability battle. And, in addition, we grew more than our competitors.”

Antel had a fixed broadband monopoly, but the market was recently opened. Its competitors in the mobile market are Movistar and Claro.

The company reported a profit of US$247mn for 2021 and 2022.