Uruguay caught our attention, which is very stable from a political and macroeconomic point of view. It has a level of digitalization above other countries in which we operate and there is a lot of legal and institutional security. Obviously all these elements make it very attractive for us as a market.
From the telecommunications point of view there are also particularities. Obviously the fact that there is a state operator that has a lot of presence, but there are also other particularities such as postpaid penetration that is much higher in Uruguay than in our other countries and a percentage of digitalization that is also above other countries.
The telecommunications market in Uruguay is very mature and there is high population coverage in networks. All this makes Uruguay attractive in the macro area and also in telecommunications.
Now they are in the middle of the migration process. How will those customers who previously had Movistar and now use TIGO notice the difference?
The truth is that for us the rebrand is much more than a logo change. It really is a change in the way we operate, how we invest and the way we relate to our clients. And within this context, we come to consolidate the operation, we come to invest, to make a lot of heavy investment in infrastructure and to become obsessed with the experience of our customers. That is what we are going to focus on today as we are making the brand change.
How much will they invest in infrastructure?
A central part of our strategy will be networks and, in that context, we are investing US$100 million over the next four years. This implies a modernization of our network that has already begun.
We already have two thirds of our network modernized and that means better technology for users, a better browsing experience, faster, and it is something that our customers are seeing. With these US$ 100 million we will continue this modernization.
We want to convert our entire network to 5G in this period and grow coverage throughout the national territory. Today there are areas that are still not covered, mainly inland areas, rural areas.
Part of our purpose is to close those gaps that we have in rural areas and cover a greater percentage of the population.
Has that investment already begun to be executed?
We’ve already started. We are at the beginning of modernization. However, in the next four years the US$100 million will be invested. But, in short, we started from the moment we came. I have been inside and clients are already starting to say that they notice a change in the browsing experience. That is to say that we have already begun to reach places where we did not reach.
I mentioned that there are areas that need better coverage. Which are the most affected?
They are mainly inland areas. Obviously the entire metropolitan area is very covered and it is by the three operators.
With the team we toured Salto, Paysandú, Tacuarembó, Rivera and Artigas. When you start to see the areas where cities are growing, beyond the towns where there is a very good signal, there are opportunities to put in better networks. For example, in Nueva Paysandú. That’s part of what we want to take advantage of.
In other parts of the world TIGO has financial services, streaming, entertainment. Could there be new TIGO business models in Uruguay?
Today we are focusing a lot on the core, in the core part of the business. That implies three things. The first is the network and those US$ 100 million that we will invest in four years to improve. The second part is in customers, in how we obsess over the customer experience. We want to grow in stores throughout the country, grow in points of sale for our prepaid customers. We have just completely changed our flagship store on Soca Street to create a completely digital experience for our users and we invite you to visit it.
And we are also growing in our positioning internally, with more sales teams and more service teams as well.
The third part is more related to the product. We are going to focus on creating simple, accessible and convenient products for different budgets.
Already today you can find new products, both in prepaid, postpaid, and in the corporate business. And what we want is for the customer to have access to different, accessible products, in the simplest way possible and with a good experience.
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Antel is the strongest player in the sector in Uruguay, what percentage of the market does TIGO have today and what is its strategy to compete?
Today we have a market share of 28%. The idea is to grow and growth comes from strengthening our infrastructure, from becoming obsessed with the customer experience, giving them greater access and being found everywhere, and being seen everywhere, which is what is going to start happening.
And in having a relevant product in the market. That is the recipe with which we propose to compete in this market and continue gaining share.
The use of artificial intelligence is increasingly intensive and this tool enhances the use of data. How do you work to keep up with that demand?
Artificial intelligence is very important and I am going to separate the answer into two parts.
First, in how we use artificial intelligence. We are working a lot on artificial intelligence on the client side, in customer service, and also in network management. It is something that is part of the Millicom group that we are putting a lot of focus on.
A second chapter is the impact that our clients’ use of artificial intelligence has on our networks. Today data growth is between 15% and 20% in the last three years. The expectation is that it will accelerate with the use of artificial intelligence and with more demand for data from our clients.
And that is partly why it is the investment that we want to make. These US$100 million are intended to cover not today’s needs, but those we envision in the medium term for the next four years.
When considering the horizon for the next four years, what are the business opportunities that you see most clearly?
I see a very big opportunity in the interior, from the point of view of closing connectivity gaps, digital gaps. As I mentioned, I had the opportunity to go around the interior several times, walk through streets and neighborhoods, talk to vendors and customers. And in those visits I identify that there is still an opportunity to connect. There are areas that are not being served and that is precisely why we are investing in network and human investment, we are growing in teams inside.
At some point there are areas that are not being attended to. And we are precisely putting network investment, also human investment. We are growing teams inside.
From the point of view of telephony, which segment do you see as most thriving?
I see opportunity in all our segments: postpaid, prepaid and corporate.
In the postpaid segment, throughout the Metropolitan Area, there is a lot of opportunity to generate differentiation in how we serve our customers. Our flagship Soca store is an example of that, in how we really raise the bar and make it possible for our customers to have an experience that has not been seen before in Uruguay.
On the prepaid side, which tends to be usually more inland, there is a lot of opportunity for growth in capillarity, in having more points of sale, service, making it easier for inland customers to access telecommunications services. And on the corporate side, the corporate business stopped being about connectivity and became a cloud and cybersecurity business. In the following months, we are launching our entire portfolio of products for SMEs, entrepreneurs, large companies and large corporations, which is very solid and has a lot of support from global partners.
In an interview with El Observador Marcelo Benítez -CEO of Millicom- stated that Uruguay had the potential to be a hub in digital services. Has that plan already started?
I also believe that Uruguay can be a hub. We are going to launch TIGO Uruguay as a regional hub.
The talent at TIGO Uruguay is of another level, people with a lot of commitment and a very fast execution capacity. We want to take advantage of this qualified talent for the long term and have Uruguayans attend to Millicom’s 12 operations. We are going to start with programmers and software developers, which is part of the strengths that Uruguay has, but it will not be limited to that, the idea is that this team will grow and be multidisciplinary, especially to serve the southern part and the new operations that we have also acquired in South America.
There is less and less willingness to pay for data. How do you conquer them? Is good experience enough or is it necessary to lower costs?
Be efficient, be able to know how to distribute resources and be able to focus on where we want to invest. If I am very efficient, then I can improve digitalization and provide a better customer experience as well.
How is this efficiency generated in concrete terms?
Taking care of every penny, practically. Seeing each investment and knowing what you want to invest in. If I’m going to make decisions about where to put a dime of the organization, I want to put it in customer experience and network development. I want clients to navigate in the best possible way and to have coverage everywhere.
That is part of my day-to-day decisions as CEO, about where we invest and ensuring that it is consumer-oriented.
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What imprint do you want your role as CEO to have on the local operation?
I am very excited to have come. What I have been able to see from the organization and the people, and not only from the people of TIGO, is a Uruguayan with a lot of hunger, with a desire to grow, with a desire to contribute, with a lot of knowledge, a very human Uruguayan.
And I believe that it is not only what I come to bring as leadership, but it is how we mix this. I have told the team, it is not that the TIGO culture comes to take over the organization. We are creating a TIGO Uruguay culture that mixes the DNA of TIGO and that of the Uruguayans.
What I have seen so far excites me and makes me think that we can achieve many things.
In a very short time we have managed to do many things. Six months is not a long time and we are launching the brand with many changes, that speaks of the talent we have in the organization. I am very happy with that and the vast majority of the growth we are seeing is from internal people and I have no doubt that this will translate into more Uruguayans growing in positions in the rest of the group.
Movistar Foundation had a strong imprint in Uruguay of being very present in the social sphere. Does TIGO also have any initiatives that go down that path?
Of course. Part of our purpose is to develop communities. And in that context we are very focused on young people and children.
We are not inventing the wheel here, there are things that we have done very well in other countries. Specifically, there is a program called Conéctate Seguro that aims to provide workshops for teachers, parents and children on responsible use of screens, on digital education for children, on cyberbullying, cyberbullying and digital fingerprinting. In that context there is a lot to work on.
We are going to work with baby soccer schools to bring this digital education to these children, knowing that baby soccer schools are part of the social fabric and to the extent that we get closer, we also make those children safer.
Digitalization is growing faster than teachers and parents can manage. And we, as a telecommunications company, believe that we have to play a role in being able to train and prepare parents, teachers and children for what is coming in the following years.
