Telecom Argentina intends to significantly increase its investment in Uruguay over the coming months and explore the possibility of acquiring Telefonica’s Movistar Uruguay unit, according to unnamed sources cited by local portal Busqueda. Executives from Grupo Clarin-owned Telecom Argentina have already met with Uruguayan president Luis Lacalle Pou to discuss future investments, above all in the wake of the government’s proposed plan to amend the law barring pay-TV operators from providing fixed broadband and telephony services, said the report.
Telecom Argentina owns Uruguayan pay-TV operator Cablevision-Flow and, if the amendment to the 2014 Law on Audiovisual Communication Services is approved next year, could begin to offer fixed broadband services in the country. Currently, the only operator allowed to provide such services is state-owned company Antel. The government was due to hold a vote on the proposed modifications before the end of the year but recently postponed it until March 2021.
Telefonica last year announced the “operational spin-off” of its remaining Latin American units as part of a wide-ranging action plan designed to modulate its exposure to the region and focus on its core markets of Spain, the UK, Germany and Brazil.
