Telecommunications in Uruguay

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Telecommunications and Broadcast Networks

Telephones - main lines in use: 965,200 (2007)

Telephones - mobile cellular: 3,004,323 (2007)

Telephone system: some modern facilities
domestic: most modern facilities concentrated in Montevideo; new nationwide microwave radio relay network
international: satellite earth stations - 2 Intelsat (Atlantic Ocean)

Radio broadcast stations: AM 94, FM 115, shortwave 14 (seven are inactive) (1998)

Radios: 1.97 million (1997)

Television broadcast stations: 62 (plus ten low-power repeaters for the Montevideo station) (2005)

Televisions: 782,000 (1997)

Country code (Top level domain): UY

Internet

Internet users: 968,000 (2007)

Internet Hosts: 480,593 (2007)

Internet Service Providers (ISPs): 5 (1999)

In Uruguay, you can access the Internet mainly by using:

• DSL services, provided by the state owned telco company (ANTEL).
• One of the different Wireless ISP (which have a tendency to be more expensive because of high taxation and radio spectrum licenses costs).
• There are no access to the internet by means of Cable TV companies as of 2008 in its largest cities or at Uruguay's capital, Montevideo.
• As an option, some shopping malls and other commercial business offer WiFi access at their location.
• Cyber cafes are very common throughout the whole country, and very inexpensive (from about U$S 0.4 an hour).
• 3G mobile internet is offered by all the mobile phone companies with rates of up to 3 Mbit/s. The 3G rates are similar to ADSL rates.
• Slower mobile internet service (EDGE and GPRS) is also offered by all mobile phone companies at very low flat rates.

ADSL in Uruguay

ANTEL, a telco company owned by the government, is the only ISP to provide ADSL service since it enjoys a monopoly in the basic telephony area. Other ISP use other technologies, such as radio, to get to customers.

Some services by Antel as of February 2011^[1] are:

No limits (Dynamic IP Address)

• ADSL 384 kbit/s / 128 kbit/s = 390UYU = 20USD a month.
• ADSL 1 Mbit/s / 256 kbit/s = 490UYU = 25USD a month.
• ADSL 1.5 Mbit/s / 256 kbit/s = 585UYU = 30USD a month.
• ADSL 2 Mbit/s / 256 kbit/s = 883UYU = 44USD a month.
• ADSL 3 Mbit/s / 256 kbit/s = 1268UYU = 64USD a month.
• ADSL 5 Mbit/s / 512 kbit/s = 2120UYU = 106USD a month.
• ADSL 10 Mbit/s / 512 kbit/s = 2490UYU = 125USD a month. (The 10 Mbit/s downstream bandwidth is for the first 100Gb, after that the downstream bandwidth can be decreased to 5 Mbit/s)

No limits (Static IP Address)

• ADSL 3 Mbit/s / 512 kbit/s = 4356UYU = 218USD a month.
• ADSL 4 Mbit/s / 512 kbit/s = 4980UYU = 249USD a month.

Limited (Dynamic IP Address)

• ADSL 512 kbit/s / 64 kbit/s up to 1 GB/month of traffic = 0UYU = 0USD a month. (There is no monthly cost associated with this service you only have to pay 490UYU / 25USD once for the installation)
• ADSL 3 Mbit/s / 512 kbit/s up to 2 GB/month of traffic = 198UYU = 10USD a month.
• ADSL 3 Mbit/s / 512 kbit/s up to 5 GB/month of traffic = 288UYU = 15USD a month.
• ADSL 3 Mbit/s / 512 kbit/s up to 20GB/month of traffic = 387UYU = 20USD a month.
• ADSL 5 Mbit/s / 512 kbit/s up to 40GB/month of traffic = 590UYU = 30USD a month.
• ADSL 10 Mbit/s / 512 kbit/s up to 80GB/month of traffic = 890UYU = 45USD a month.

All prices include VAT.

The ADSL service is available if you have a corresponding land line with Antel.

Fiber To The Home in Uruguay

On November 2010 ANTEL announced that it will start rolling out Fiber To The Home in the second half of 2011 ^[2]:

Wireless in Uruguay

Dedicado is a local wireless ISP. It appeared before or about at the same time than Anteldata (about in 1999), but since ADSL was not available at the same time on every neighborhood, Dedicado had the majority of the permanent internet connections. As of November 2007, ADSL is available in every neighborhood in Montevideo, and in most other cities, and Dedicado lost a big market share, both because being more expensive and giving bad service to their users. They started a big advertising campaign, but didn't pay attention to the technical details related to their amount of users, so their quality of service decreased. In 2005, they started deploying WiMAX services. However, as of May 2010, the service is not offered nor advertised yet. There are other wireless ISPs, but Dedicado is the main one.

ISPs in Uruguay

The main ISPs in Uruguay are:

• Anteldata, by ANTEL (http://www.anteldata.com.uy).
• Dedicado, by Dedicado (http://www.dedicado.com.uy).
• TelMex, also related to CTI Movil (http://www.telmex.com.uy)
• Movistar (http://www.movistar.com.uy)
• Claro (http://www.claro.com.uy)

Many of those services also have an installation cost, which is equal to one or two months of said service. It is not unusual for some people to get together to pay for one of these services, and share it by using WiFi or Ethernet.

References

1. ^ Anteldata website
2. ^ Antel FTTH Anouncement (In Spanish)

• Stats are from the World Factbook