UTE is the acronym of the National Administration of Power Plants and Electrical Transmissions (Spanish: Administración Nacional de Usinas y Trasmisiones Eléctricas), Uruguay's government-owned power company. It was established in 1912.In 1912, the law 4273 created this public company as the unique distributor of electricity was approved. Then, in 1931, the monopoly of communications was also granted to this company until the founding of ANTEL in 1974. Later, in 1980 an organic law was passed.