Uruguay

last updated: April 17, 2002

April 17, 2002	The Uruguayan government has been forced to call off its planned sale of 2G and 3G mobile licences due to continuing problems with the Argentine economy and disputes between politicians. The sale of five tranches of frequencies in the 1800MHz, 1900MHz and 2100MHz bands will be suspended for six months while the government looks at ways of reforming the laws which control the operation of state-owned national telco Antel. Mario Bergara, director of the country’s telecoms regulator Ursec, which is handling the sale, says the licence fee of US$6 million for each of the five concessions will remain unchanged. It is thought that the new deadline for submission of bids for the wireless licences will be 18 October, with the auction beginning one month later.

January 21, 2002	Uruguay's government is blaming the financial crisis in Argentina for having to push back the date of its spectrum auction for 2.5G and 3G spectrum. The contest has been pushed back from 28th January to May 6th at the request of an interested party. Local media sources said that the interested party is Telecom Argentina. The Uruguayan regulator, Ursec, has set April 12 as the deadline for submitting the US$1m guarantee fee and buying the rights to enter the contest. Just three operators had bought the contest rules by the previous deadline, which was Friday 11th January. They were Telefonica Moviles, Telecom Argentina and incumbent mobile operator Movicom Bellsouth.

December 16, 2001	Uruguay's delayed 2G and 3G spectrum auction will finally take place on January 28, 2002. The delay was caused by problems over transferring a license from Antel to Movicom Uruguay. Interested parties will be able to buy bidding documents by January 11, 2001 along with a US$1m (EUR1.12m) deposit. For each block of 5Mhz uplink and downlink a reserve price of US$6m (EUR6.74m) has also been set.

September 14, 2001:	The government of Uruguay, through its telecoms regulator, the Unidad Reguladora de Servicios de Comunicaciones has announced plans for a 3G and 2G spectrum auction, to occur before the end of this year. The auction is expected to start on November 26th 2001. The regulator is making 50Mhz available in both the 1800 and 1900 bands, plus a further 30Mhz in the 2100Mhz band. The deadline for applications to participate in the action must be made by October 30th, with deposits and guarantees offered between then and the commencement of the spectrum auction. The licenses will last 20 years and a network rollout must begin within 30 months of the license being granted.

August 23, 2001:

Uruguay's telecoms regulator Ursec plans to auction spectrum for 3G mobile telephony in mid-November this year as well as 2G, Mario Bergara, Ursec board member and economist.

Spectrum blocks of 5MHz in 1800MHz, 1900MHz and 2100MHz bands will be sold under an auction format that would allow one operator to acquire blocks in all three bands. A minimum bid price will be set for each 5MHz block with a spectrum cap of 20MHz in each band, not to exceed 70 or 75MHz for all three bands.

State operator Antel and Bellsouth subsidiary Movicom Uruguay are currently the only mobile operators in Uruguay. Movicom rents its license from Antel.