One very enjoyable radio programme in Uruguay (conducted by Daniel Castro from Radio El Espectador) includes a high-profile interview every morning, and today was the turn for Gustavo Delgado, Director of ANTEL, Uruguay’s national telecoms company.
“National”? I hear you say. Yes, many South American countries have state monopolies in telecoms and utilities. Uruguay no longer has a monopoly but ANTEL remains the strongest player. So its priorities and road map matter, and Delgado summarised them during the interview:
1- Fibre optic broadband, which currently reaches 70% of the market (and, by the way, it’s fantastic – I only appreciate it when I travel to other corners of Latin America and the connection is poor)
2- 4G LTE – apparently, we’ll be celebrating 500k users this month (bearing in mind that Uruguay has a population of 3.4m, that’s pretty huge)
Not sure why ANTEL chose Vera for their 4G LTE… so very Lancs?
3- Data Centres – one to be opened later this year in Pando, near Montevideo
4- Google’s undersea cable – the cause of intense debates in Uruguay, Delgado thinks that this connectivity will give the country sovereignty despite privacy and espionage concerns
I’m totally loving Netflix in Uruguay
It’s clear that in all four areas, there is scope for business with UK companies.
On the downside(*), since the new government took office in Uruguay in March, there have been important budget cuts announced by our Osborne-equivalent, Danilo Astori. This has hit public companies particularly hard, and it is evident in ANTEL. Two things to note:
1- The USD 23m annual spending on advertising has been halved, as Delgado discussed at the interview (the figure is so shocking that someone from the audience got in touch to ask if the figure was actually in USD or pesos). So, bad news for British advertising agencies (Delgado did mention that the deal to sponsor football clubs remains unchanged, see picture below…)
Forlan has just joined Uruguay team Peñarol, ANTEL are shirt sponsors.
2- The ANTEL Arena, a flagship project of the former government, has now been halted, which has caused huge debate here in Uruguay. If you work in infrastructure, construction and so on, you will have felt this hit.
So plenty going on in Uruguay, even if this is a year to tighten one’s belt…
*When I say “on the downside” I mean it in terms of opportunities today for UK businesses. I think it’s very positive that the government is taking its deficit and the cost burden it imposes in the whole country seriously. Remember that our inflation is high (up to 8.5% this month) and that the country is becoming less competitive internationally (as I always say on Twitter, Uruguay is as expensive as the UK, if not more, for a lot of daily buys).
