Venezuela telecoms: private firms hold 86% of mobile data, Conatel holds the keys

In Venezuela's internet market, the state is already a minority. CANTV has 30.94% of traditional internet subscribers and Movilnet 14% of mobile broadband, according to Conatel's fourth-quarter 2025 figures; Movistar and Digitel together hold 86% of mobile data. The shares describe a private market. The law describes another: every decision that sets the value of those businesses goes through the state.

Selling needs a permit, and silence means no

Spectrum rights are, in the words of the Organic Telecommunications Law, "strictly personal": they cannot be assigned or transferred by contract or merger, and a concession lasts at most 15 years. Any direct or indirect change of control of an operator requires Conatel's prior approval, which it can grant only with a favorable opinion from the competition authority.

If Conatel does not answer in time, the law treats it as a no.

That key has a live case. It has been reported since September, without confirmation from Telefónica, that the company is weighing a sale of its Venezuelan unit, Movistar. In its second-quarter report, Telefónica did not classify Venezuela as held for sale, as it did with Mexico, whose sale was made subject to "the relevant regulatory approvals." It publishes January-September results on November 12.

Requiring approval for a change of control is not unusual; Mexico requires it too. What is particular to Venezuela is silence that denies and another rule in the same law: the regulator can revoke or suspend any license "when it deems it suitable to the interests of the Nation."

The price, too

The 2010 reform changed a rule that weighs on any revenue projection. Under the 2000 text, Conatel could set minimum and maximum tariffs only where there was a dominant position. The current law lets the regulator set the tariffs of any telecommunications service "when it considers it necessary for reasons of public interest."

The only written limit is that public interest.

The fund competitors pay for

Every for-profit operator pays 1% of its gross revenue into the Universal Service Fund, on top of the sector's tax and fees, which together reach up to 4.8% of gross revenue. The fund is a separate pool managed by Conatel. Its projects are approved by a five-member board on which contributors have one representative, and the law allows obligations to be assigned directly to the state telephone operator.

That money is paying for part of the state's international connectivity. Conatel reported in April that the Caribe-1 submarine cable, 225 kilometers between Carúpano and Chaguaramas, in Trinidad and Tobago, is moving ahead "thanks to financing from the Universal Service Fund" and "with execution by CANTV." It published neither its cost nor its service date. Infrastructure the fund subsidizes becomes the operator's property once Conatel declares it so.

Movistar, Digitel and the private providers, which together hold about 69% of traditional internet and 86% of mobile data, thus contribute to their state competitor's network. And they cannot see how the fund is used. The law requires Conatel to publish an annual report, the regulation gives it 45 days after year-end, and the latest report on its website is from 2015. That year the fund collected Bs 1.28 billion and disbursed about Bs 66,000.

The levy is not atypical: Venezuela charges less than Colombia. What is atypical is not accounting for it. Not even the ALBA-1 cable, the state project with Cuba, was paid for with competitors' contributions.

The keys also open

Conatel has used the same powers to open. When the Cirion submarine cable, owned by a private company that sold international capacity to providers, broke, it authorized four of them in July — Thundernet, VNET, Fibex and Airtek — to connect overland to Colombia. In October it licensed SpaceX's Venezuelan unit to sell Starlink nationwide and issued 18 new licenses. International connectivity does not depend on CANTV alone.

Starlink on the phone has happened once

Phones connecting straight to a satellite have already worked in Venezuela, as an exception. After the June 24 earthquakes, Conatel gave Movistar a three-month permit to use two blocks of the 1900 MHz band with Starlink satellites, in La Guaira only. The condition was to share that capacity and spectrum with Digitel and Movilnet. Movistar offered it free, for text messages.

It is a different license from October's. SpaceX's authorization covers satellite internet in the Ku band; the service to phones ran over mobile spectrum, which Conatel also assigns.

In the region it is already a business. Chile and Peru had it when state-owned CNT launched it in Ecuador on September 29. +Móvil sells it in Panama as a complement: the phone switches to the satellite only where there is no terrestrial signal. And on October 26, Vivo, Telefónica's brand in Brazil, opened it to about 50 million customers, free for a year for individuals.

Each Venezuelan operator starts from a different place. Movistar has the precedent and a parent company that already sells it in Brazil; but if Telefónica sells the unit, as reported without confirmation, that decision will belong to the buyer. Digitel uses Starlink as the link for a cell site in La Guaira, not to reach the phone directly. Movilnet, the state operator, joined the emergency messaging and has CNT as an example; with it, a permanent deal with a U.S. company also goes through OFAC.

The missing key is Conatel's: mobile spectrum for satellites, outside an emergency.

Washington has another

OFAC General License 62, issued August 21, authorizes U.S. companies to negotiate new investment in Venezuelan telecommunications, including with the government and Conatel, but only as contingent contracts: performing them requires a separate OFAC authorization. And it excludes any dealings with persons in China or entities they control.

A U.S. investor needs two permits for the same deal.

What to watch

Five documents would change this reading. Telefónica's November 12 results, in case Venezuela is reclassified as held for sale. An annual report of the fund after 2015. The Caribe-1 contract, with its cost and the rules for other operators to use its capacity. OFAC's first separate authorization under License 62. And a Conatel permit for a mobile operator to use its spectrum with satellites outside an emergency, or a commercial plan with Starlink.

For anyone weighing buying or financing a Venezuelan operator, market share says what the business is worth. The law says who decides whether it can be sold, what price it can charge and what the 1% of its revenue is spent on.