Biznews (BN): Thanks to the democratic and institutional quality and the great political, legal and social stability, Uruguay is an extremely attractive place for foreign investment. This has made of Uruguay one of the fastest growing countries in Latin America and the largest recipient of FDI in relation to the size of its economy in the last decade. In this regard, President Vázquez said in Germany, "we don´t only ask for investments, there are things that we have to offer to investors." How would you describe the current business and investment climate in Uruguay and what other factors would you highlight?

Eng. Andres Tolosa (Eng. A. T.): The climate in Uruguay for business has improved significantly, it is excellent. Uruguay has a very good infrastructure. Both industrial and services investors can settle here and serve not only the Uruguayan market, which is small, but serve the region from here. We are steps away from Buenos Aires and Sao Paulo, for example. We are talking about infrastructure in telecommunications, very useful for new businesses, and much improved in recent years. We have the best services internationally in benchmarking, the best levels both in what is access to the world by fiber optic and access to data. In Uruguay, we have top mobile access of last generation to the 4G and LTE networks. We have the best technology. We have a recently inaugurated Data Center, with international certifications also of the best level. Last year we completed the direct connection to the United States with an underwater cable.

Although we already had a powerful connection via Argentina, now we have our own submarine cable that connects us to the Internet node in Miami and from there to the world. It has the best connectivity and the best costs. This will allow us to have the best growth capacity for the development of the business. This gives us sovereignty because one does not depend on international companies or countries, like it was the case with Argentina. Before, we depended on their connections, or those with Brazil, now we have direct access with our own cable.

We also have a partnership with a company like Google, which gives us great potential because it gives credibility. There are also other types of infrastructures in which Uruguay has advanced a lot, such as electricity. Uruguay today has a more than sustainable power plant, hydraulic and wind power, with gas support eventually to any problem. Only with hydraulic and wind power demand is exceeded and allows industries with high energy consumption to be installed in Uruguay. In fact, Uruguay is exporting to Argentina and Brazil. Now what is required is for the industries to settle here. Having that great infrastructure they can develop without having to worry if there are good telecommunications, energy or other services. Uruguay also has very good banking services, very developed. It works well for the region. There are good consulting services and ICT companies. Uruguay has grown a lot in this sense. We have successful software companies that are working worldwide. All this makes of Uruguay a very attractive country for investors, not only at a regional level, as it originally was, but at a global level.

BN: Google Executive Jayne Stowell said that when a submarine cable arrives in a country many companies with large offices or manufacturing factories follow, making GDP increase between 2% and 3% in the following years of arrival of the cable. What trend are you seeing since it was installed and what are your projections about it?

AT: Both the Data Center and the submarine cable are a great incentive for the installation of international companies in Uruguay. We have not made any announcement yet since the submarine cable is very recent. At the beginning of this year it will start to work. In addition, large international companies are more and more operating in different countries around the globe.

The big servers like Google or Facebook were first in the most developed countries, but we are seeing them now operating and developing in other countries. Uruguay is going to be a very possible destination for them because they will have this infrastructure already developed, they will not have to do it from scratch.

BN: The cable is a game changer, since Uruguay goes from being a buyer to being a supplier with the idea of exporting to Argentina, Brazil or through those countries even to Chile, Paraguay or Bolivia. What are Antel's international aspirations?

AT: We as Antel are a state company so we have certain limitations in businesses, especially if they are international. Our perspective is to develop businesses with the capacity we have now, both the submarine cable and the Data Center. This way we can sell to Brazil and Argentina directly and to Paraguay and Bolivia through them. We can compete in a market that is already established but with relatively high prices. For Antel, this will be a new, genuine and extra income. We think that some percentage of our income, maybe 1% or 2% will contribute to Antel's total income. But this is going to grow, the world of telecommunications is very dynamic and it is difficult to forecast 5 years from now, it changes radically. We can see it with the app developments, these are changing every business a lot. Now there is a new world that is the Internet of things, of objects. This will change several vertical industries; medicine, entertainment, logistics… because any device will have Internet. First, it were the universities that were connected to the internet, then the companies, then the houses, the homes, and then the people. This is something. There are many millions of devices, a lot of data traffic, and a lot of movement. This is going to be a big boost for the telecommunications sector. It may be in a few years or a little more but it sure is something that is being promoted.

BN: From the Presidency of ANTEL, your antecessor Eng. Carolina Cosse deployed a strategy based on the broadest democratization of access to new information technologies, and Internet access in the country's homes. As the ICT Minister of Colombia David Luna told me “an informed citizen is a productive citizen”. What impact are they seeing in the population by having easier access to ICT?

AT: The change in productivity that we have seen has been impressive. Today one is instantly receiving information and responding. We used to handle ourselves with notes, for example, waiting for days to be answered. Not anymore. The improvement in productivity with robotics will be impressive too. This will favor labor and even with better costs, costs in the interior of the country are lower because the costs of living are lower. This can benefit the company. The workforce in ICT does not spare.

BN: In the mobile market, Antel competes with two other international giants such as Movistar and Claro, but Antel's market share continues to grow. How would you describe the competition in the sector?

AT: The competition is high and the sector is very dynamic. While we have a monopoly on what is fixed telephony, it has less and less participation in Antel's revenues, which is 18% only and decreases year by year. We have been focusing for a few years now to compete in the mobile and data market. While Antel is the only one that has fiber optics at home, the data market today also competes with fixed ones. We have always managed to be in the leadership of technology, with a lot of investment. We have led the GSM technology, then our competitors followed us. We were also the first ones to launch 3G, one of the firsts in Latin America. Also, we were the first ones to have a commercial network in LTE and 4G. We broadcasted the 2014 FIFA World Cup in Brazil on cellphones and it was a big boom. Today, 70% of our mobile connections are LTE. We are at the levels of the most advanced countries in the world in terms of LTE penetration and customer base. Our service has the best coverage and the best quality of service, better speed, compared to our competition. This makes our customers remain the majority. Today, we not only compete against companies in Uruguay, but we compete globally. We are partners with these big companies because thanks to them we have Internet traffic. At the same time, as we are developing value-added businesses, in those businesses we compete with Google, Facebook or even Apple. They are trying to enter the world via the Internet. We are developing it little by little. We have already developed a channel through the Internet and a grid of channels, it is called Vera TV. We have had that since 2011 and we are very well positioned, we transmit football for example to homes and cell phones. Netflix for example is installed in Uruguay and operating from the data center. It is able to have one of the best speeds, because it uses fiber optic. We have 54% of the market share. In December we made the announcement in the area for 4.5G, which is the preview of what will be the 5G. The competition had to go out and make announcements that I had it too. We have to continue investing strongly and making quick decisions. Our competitors make decisions globally, we can take decisions faster and move forward. Above all, as I mentioned before, it is not only competition with other operators but with other services, for example WhatsApp. The cost of the data of a call by WhatsApp is much lower than a normal call. We will eventually be a purely data company, but we have to keep adding value. You have to look for other businesses.

BN: One of Antel´s lines of action for the period 2015-2019 is to consolidate the image of a leading and innovative company in Uruguay and the region. How are you transmitting this image internationally?

Eng. Andres Tolosa (Eng. A. T.): With the submarine cable and the Data Center as a whole. Now we have a connection with Argentina and the United States and soon we will have with Brazil. In the Data Center, there are many business opportunities for companies. Our Uruguayan ICT companies have supported us in this, they are using and even selling our services to the region.

Eng. Marcelo Breu (M.A.): Geographical borders are no longer technological borders. Today it is possible to provide services from anywhere in the world. This is the challenge we have as Antel, first in the region and then in the world. We trust that we have the best technology and all the attributes of Uruguay to offer excellence in telecommunications and services. This is a distinction that Uruguay generally has and that Antel particularly has when it comes to companies. This is a fundamental attribute at the time that decision makers evaluate to operate from here.

BN: Germany is the largest trading partner of Uruguay in the European Union and fifth globally. For its part, Uruguay has experienced a strong inflow of German FDI in the last decade. During the official visit of Dr. Vázquez to Germany in early 2017 Chancellor Merkel said, "This visit is very important, because our potential has not yet been exploited." President Vázquez expressed, "I believe that the political relations between Uruguay and Germany are at the top of the peak and even of common dreams", but also both agreed that there is a lot of space for their trade to become even more entrenched. What progress has been made since the visit about a year ago and in which areas would you like to see more cooperation?

AT: In Uruguay there is a very good infrastructure for any high-tech company to be established here. Industries will have trained human resources to work. And above all you have to think for the region. The potential of German industries to come to Uruguay is to settle here to be able to develop businesses throughout the region. It is the best place from which to enter the entire region. The Uruguayan market is too small to do business in Uruguay alone, but here they have all the infrastructure and logistics to grow a lot regionally. Especially in Buenos Aires and the south of Brazil, an economically very important area. Even Chile. The costs are very convenient and do not lead to a loss of competitiveness compared to other regions.

BN: You have been in the company for more than 3 decades and have gone through all the different levels of management, being appointed President in April 2015, when you said that "The company today is not the same as when I joined, but it is not the same as it was five years ago." What company do you want to leave behind once your position as its head ends?

AT : A company with these large projects completed. Now we have a project that we aim to finish this year, which is a large cultural, sports and entertainment complex. It is also a large convention center, since Montevideo does not have one. Now we are finishing it in the best way. The great goal is to be able to consolidate these great projects in the best way. Also, get to connect all the homes to fiber optic. Today we have 70% of homes connected, which is a very high number – in the world we are among the top 10 countries with the best fiber optic connection – but we want to reach values close to 100%. We aim to increase that 70% to 90% by the end of 2019, if possible even reach 100%. I would also like us to have, if not the 5G already working, at least all the previous evolution. Mobile networks have changed the world and today the largest volume of traffic, messages and businesses are circulating on mobile networks. The cellphone is a part of people´s bodies, for good and for bad. Technology always brings benefits, you can be located at anytime, messages are instantaneous, it always brings benefits. One is free after to disconnect and not use it. Furthermore The Ceibal Plan, which is practically unique, helps children in school have access to internet. This opened them the doors to the world. Maybe someone from the big cities does not realize it, but for a child in the countryside access to the Internet changes his life. It is not just access to a computer, it is access to a computer connected to internet. As Negro Ponte said, “with all the developments Uruguay is having at the level of telecommunications it can easily be one of the most innovative countries in the world in the next 25 years.” Uruguay has that opportunity. However, the game is not won and you cannot fall asleep, you have to constantly adapt and invest.