In the middle of the controversy concerning the use of home fiber optics (for internet service) by private telephone companies Claro and Movistar, the Uruguyan government has decided to send a new bill to parliament to give a monopoly in this area to state-owned ANTEL.
“An announcement by the President of the Republic, in the next few days he will have created, with the Minister of Industry, draft ledgislation to grant a monopoly on the use of public fiber optic cables to ANTEL”, said the Presidential secretary, Alberto Breccia, after a cabinet meeting.
The government’s idea, in principal, is to establish this monopoly by decree. Nevertheless they are restrained and limited by the earlier Telecommunicat
ions Law. The president created a surprise today with the news, since according to Breccia this bill will be a separate project.
The controversy surrounding private use of fiber optic cables was generated at the end of 2011 when the Communication Services Regulatory Unit (Ursec) detected that the company Claro was selling home fiber optic services to private companies in tax free zones. After Ursec proved the allegations, Claro was forced to disconnect these services.
Claro defended selling data transmission by using this tool arguing that a legal vacuum existed.
ANTEL’s monopoly only applies to land based telecommunications.
Private telephone companies today sell internet services but by satellite not by cable.
This is a translation of an article that appeared in the Uruguayan newspaper El Observador. You can view the original article, in Spanish, here.
Uruguay Business Reports 
You can check a social cause trying to make this not happen.
http://www.LibreInternetEnUruguay.com/en