The president of the state telephone company, Gabriel Gurméndez, pointed out that the opposition voted against the acquisition of the reserved block and accused it of wanting to dismantle the company.
The auction for the three blocks in the 5G spectrum in Uruguay It continues to generate controversy even after it was carried out, this time not because of the opinions of the private telephone companies that participated in it, but because of the conflict that took place within the Antel board of directors over the purchase of the block reserved for the state company. According to the president of the operator, Gabriel Gurmendez, he broad front it is “to put spokes in the wheel”.
After the auction for the spectrum to develop 5G technology in the country finally took place last Tuesday —which was carried out without surprises, with Movistar and Clear acquiring one block each—, Antel confirmed to the Communication Services Regulatory Unit (Ursec) that would use the band reserved by the Executive Power. The next step in the state company was to vote the corresponding payment of 28,075,500 dollars.
For this, the company’s board of directors met, which managed to approve the payment by majority, with the support of its president, Gurméndez, and the vice president Pablo Lanz. However, the Frente Amplio vote in charge of daniel larrosa generated discord within Antel.
“Unusual. When the time came to project ANTEL into the future, It looks good who we are to build and who to put the stick in the wheel. FA director voted against acquiring the band for 5G. (In fact, will they want to dismantle?) ”, expressed the president of the company after the events through his account Twitter.
The Broad Front, in opposition to the auction
The rejection of the opposition to the competitive process for the award of the blocks in the 5G network is not new: it could already be foreseen from the position of the director for the FA in Ursec, Pablo Siris, who qualified from the outset as “false auction” bidding for the radio spectrum.
Likewise, and among other criticisms of the conditions of the process —among them, a very low base price and renewal conditions at the will of the operating company— the Broad Front stated that the structure of the auction sought to “comply with the requirements that are raised by some multinational companies”and that they were not in the best interest of the State or the country.
Source: Ambito
