A few days ago, the president of ANTEL, Gabriel Gurméndez, said that in a context of increased competition, ANTEL “won 18,463 services in January and February, a figure much higher than the same period last year.”
“The positive balance of 1,500 clients who switched from Claro and Movistar to the public company, making use of the right enshrined in the LUC, is added, which left the state company as the only telephone company in the market with a favorable balance in the so-called ‘ porting market’”, highlighted the president of ANTEL.
other figures
However, the president of the union, Gabriel Molina, stated that it is “in a hurry to carry out an analysis of the situation when not even a year has passed since the application of number portability”, and assured that “it was a serious mistake that the The government will make the decision to start applying portability as of January 12, when it is one of the articles that will be considered in the referendum.”
“It would seem that they went ahead because it is a political and economic decision, with a process that will inevitably affect ANTEL”, remarked the union leader.
He said that he would like to know how many ANTEL clients have left the company, because the union has different information than the one provided by the Board of Directors.
He explained that, according to a graph held by SUTEL that was prepared by the Communications Services Regulatory Unit (URSEC), in the first half of March this year, “ANTEL began to have a weak position and lose customers.”
“This situation worries us, because we are not predictors of defeat, but it is true that we said this and they despised us for being a union,” Molina questioned.
He remarked that, in any case, the telecommunications entity has not done so badly “thanks to the fact that its workers put their chests to the bullets.”
According to data presented by the union, and which at the time was managed by legislators from the Front, in the first half of March, ANTEL registered a net negative balance of some 800 clients, Claro lost 260 and Movistar achieved a balance of 1,000 new ones”.
Investments
On the other hand, Molina questioned the expressions of Gurméndez who “handles very nice numbers and says that ANTEL has carried out the most important investment in history.”
“But we would like to know what you mean, because in these times there has been no submarine cable, no fiber optics, no Data Center or ANTEL Arena,” questioned Molina.
The union leader recognized that 14 antennas have been inaugurated in the interior of the country, “which is good, if it goes along the lines of sustaining investment and connectivity in remote places; but, in recent years ANTEL did not inaugurate, but it did put into operation more than 100 antennas per year”.
On the other hand, Molina indicated that when Gurméndez speaks of “wonderful” numbers, it is because of “savings, because there was no investment.”
“We don’t know the company’s strategy, because placing new modems in customers’ homes is not a strategy, it is a technical necessity, and selling more services is also a necessity for ANTEL,” he said.
He remarked that if “the numbers that are being favorable, it is because there were no large investments”, in addition to the savings because there was no entry of personnel and the commercial attention sectors are going to have complications when it comes to providing their service”.
