Introduction
How is the communication system in Uruguay? Here, Broadcast media include mixture of privately owned and state-run broadcast media; more than 100 commercial radio stations and about 20 TV channels; cable TV is available; many community radio and TV stations; adopted the hybrid Japanese/Brazilian HDTV standard (ISDB-T) in December 2010 (2019). What about Telecommuication systems and Internet? Explore this article to find out more.
More about communication in Uruguay
| Internet country code | .uy |
|---|---|
| Broadband - fixed subscriptions | |
| Total | 1,063,701 (2020 est.) |
| Subscriptions per 100 inhabitants | 31 (2020 est.) |
| Internet users | |
| Total | 3.06 million (2021 est.) |
| Percent of population | 90% (2021 est.) |
| Telecommunication systems | |
| General assessment | Uruguay has an advanced telecom market, with excellent infrastructure and one of the highest broadband penetration rates in Latin America; fixed-line teledensity is also particularly high for the region, while mobile penetration is the second highest after Panama; in terms of computer penetration, Uruguay tops all other countries in the region by a considerable margin, and this has facilitated growth in fixed-line broadband adoption; the government and telecom regulator have introduced a range of measures to help develop the deployment of fiber infrastructure, partly in a bid to encourage economic growth and stimulate e-commerce; fiber accounted for over 95% of all fixed and fixed-wireless broadband connections as of December 2023; with investment projected to reach $800 million, the state-owned incumbent Antel is expected to provide national Fiber to the premises (FttP) coverage by 2023; together with the FttP network, the opening of the submarine cable system in early 2012 and August 2017 have helped boost Uruguay’s internet bandwidth, and increase the data rate available to end-users; changes in legislation in 2020 allowed cable companies to provide home internet service for the first time, ending the state monopoly; Uruguay's regulator authorized five cable companies to provide broadband service; while the country's broadband network is state owned, other segments of the telecom market have been opened to competition, including international long-distance telephony, mobile telephony, and fixed-wireless broadband; cable networks are well equipped technologically, and digital cable TV is widely available, telecom legislation prohibits data transmission over pay TV networks; all three operators offer mobile broadband through 3G and LTE networks; operators have achieved nationwide 3G coverage and the number of mobile broadband subscribers continues to grow; at the end of 2019, spectrum in the 5G-suitable range was auctioned, enabling operators to launch 5G services; Uruguay's regulators held a 5G spectrum auction in June 2023; the three incumbent operators each acquired 100 Ghz in the 3.5 GHz midband; in 2023, Uruguay's state telecom has deployed hundreds of 5G radio bases, covering all regional capitals (2021) |
| Domestic | Fixed-line is 36 per 100 and mobile-cellular teledensity 140 per 100 persons (2021) |
| International | Country code - 598; landing points for the Unisor, Tannat, and Bicentenario submarine cable system providing direct connectivity to Brazil and Argentina; the Firmina cable, which landed in 2023, allowed for direct connectivity to the United States; Bicentenario 2012 and Tannat 2017 cables helped end-users with Internet bandwidth; satellite earth stations - 2 Intelsat (Atlantic Ocean) (2020) |
| Telephones - fixed lines | |
| Total subscriptions | 1.259 million (2022 est.) |
| Subscriptions per 100 inhabitants | 37 (2022 est.) |
| Telephones - mobile cellular | |
| Total subscriptions | 4.741 million (2022 est.) |
| Subscriptions per 100 inhabitants | 139 (2022 est.) |
All Important Facts about Uruguay
Want to know more about Uruguay? Check all different factbooks for Uruguay below.
