Uruguay Telecoms Market will be Worth US$1.07bn in 2012

            Come 2012, it is expected that Uruguay's telecommunications market will likely bring in revenues that is worth at least US$1.07bn. This was brought forward after a recent study by Signals Telecom Consulting. According to Signals, Uruguay's telecoms sector will grow at a compound annual growth rate of 4% between 2007 and 2012.

            From what was gathered from the study, mobile telephony will experience a strong growth during this period and will continue competing with fixed line monopoly Antel. It also emphasized that revenues generated by mobile operators will exceed revenues from the fixed line business by the end of 2007.

            The mobile operators in Uruguay are América Móvil unit CTI Móvil, Telefónica unit Movistar Uruguay and Ancel, which is owned by Antel. Based on this study, the country will end 2007 with a mobile penetration rate of 76.5%. This percentage is expected to increase to 100% by 2011. The reason for mobile sector growth will be the launch of mobile broadband. This will allow mobile operators to compete with Antel in that aspect.