Antel began deploying 5G technology in Uruguay last year over spectrum in the 3.5GHz band.
Uruguay’s state-owned telecommunications company Inter has deployed a total of 300 5G base stations across the country, local reports have reported.
The company reportedly aims to have 500 5G sites across Uruguay by February 2025.
The company announced in September last year that it had completed enabling 5G technology in 19 provincial capitals across the country.
In June 2023, Antel began deploying 5G technology in Uruguay via spectrum in the 3.5GHz band.
The company said that in the initial phase, around 300,000 customers had access to 5G in the cities of Montevideo, Colonia, Maldonado and Canelones.
Uruguay’s telecommunications regulator UrSec had secured a 100-megahertz block of spectrum for Antel in the last spectrum auction. Rival operators Claro, part of Mexican telecom group America Movil, and Movistar, part of Spanish telecom company Telefonica, also secured 5G spectrum in the May 2023 5G auction. The sole bidders in that auction each acquired a 100-megahertz block in the 3.5 GHz band for a combined total of $56 million.
Ursek stipulated that in the first two years of the contract, the operators must install a total of 70 antennas across the country and at least two base stations in at least 10 geographic “departments,” excluding the capital, Montevideo. In the following 36 months, Claro and Movistar will have to install at least two base stations in each of the 19 departments.
The 5G auction was marked by controversy after Ursec decided to exclude local operator Dedicado, which had expressed interest in the frequencies, and which the local operators considered the base price set by the watchdog to be too high. Movistar, Claro and Dedicado had appealed the price of the 5G frequencies.
In April 2019, Antel launched a pre-commercial 5G network in Montevideo using 28GHz spectrum already allocated for FWA services. Claro and Movistar were subsequently granted temporary access to the 28GHz spectrum to test 5G services, including FWA.
Claro and Movistar also offer 5G services in select urban areas across Uruguay.
An earlier report from telecommunications association GSMA said the number of 5G subscribers in Uruguay is expected to reach 4 million by 2030, up from 900,000 in 2025.
According to the GSMA report, 5G penetration in the Uruguayan market is expected to reach 13% by 2025 and grow to 65% by 2030.
The GSMA also noted that 5G networks will cover 99% of Uruguay’s population by 2030, up from 25% in 2025.
According to the GSMA, 5G is projected to achieve 57% of total mobile connections in Latin America by 2030, up from a current penetration rate of about 2%. The GSMA report predicts that the region will reach 11% 5G penetration by 2025.
