The president of Antel, Gabriel Gurmendez, said that the resolutions of the Executive Power that authorized five cable operators of Canelones, Colonia and Montevideo to provide internet services in their coverage areas, “in no way do they oblige Antel to provide any service or any infrastructure.” “We are not obligated. We are going to get together at the right time and we will see if it suits us or not,” he said this Thursday in Informativo Sarandí.
The initial idea of the government was to force Antel to give the infrastructure to the cable operators that intend to provide internet. That intention was reflected in the project for a new media law that the Executive sent to Parliament. However, in the negotiation in Parliament, the ruling coalition agreed to remove that passage from a text that was never approved.
Given this lack of progress, the government decided to move forward through resolutions to enable five cable companies, which had rulings in favor of the Supreme Court of Justice on the appeal of unconstitutionality filed against the regulations that prohibited them from offering internet. Now these companies have the possibility of negotiating with Antel to use their infrastructure or make the investment to change the wiring they currently have to provide fiber optic television service that allows them to offer internet service.
“We have to see if it is part of my competitive strategy (providing them with infrastructure)”valued the hierarch and pointed out that “there are things that are convenient”. Gurméndez named some examples in which that criterion is used. “Antel itself provides services to its competition in the data center. Provides you with services point-of-presence internet to its mobile competitors in Montevideo. Provides services of submarine cable and fiber optics to Movistar and Telefónica“. He also indicated that “Antel and the other competitors share antenna infrastructure.”
“Telecommunications companies manage networks that interconnect with each other. There is strong competition in some sectors, but sometimes they complement each other and are clients of one another,” he explained.
Gurméndez maintained that if an offer arrives to provide a service to a company that may be a competitor, but that may also be a client, they will ask themselves whether “Is this a good deal for Antel?”
