Mobile Telephony
When mobile telephony arrived in Uruguay, the only company set up the country was Movicom BellSouth. Mobile phone numbers would begin with digits 09, followed by a unique number of 6 digits: 09xxxxxx.
In 1994, ANTEL decided to start its own mobile phone service, creating Ancel, which today is unified to Antel, using this brand to both services.. This meant a numbering change for mobile telephony. One number was assigned to each company to identify numbers of each one. This digit would go between 09 and the number. Movicom was assigned number 4, and Ancel number 9. Mobile phones until then (which were Movicom) went to 094xxxxxx, and new Ancel numbers began to be 099xxxxxx.
In 2003, Claro came to Uruguay (formerly as CTI Móvil). Numbers of this company were preceded by 096, like this: 096xxxxxx.
In 2004, Telefónica bought Movicom Bellsouth and changed its name to Movistar.
Since nowadays the numbers of units sold has grown so much, when the companies reached one million users, they had to be assigned with other digits.
- Movistar: 094, 095 and 093.
- Antel: 099, 098 and 091.
- Claro: 096 and 097.
092 is still free in case a new company sets up in the market. URSEC has also reserved 084, 089 and 086 for a possible future use.
Read more about this topic: Telephone Numbers In Uruguay
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