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This annual report offers a wealth of information on the Telecommunications Market in Latin Amercia. covering:Infrastructure Issues Regulatory issues and government policies re infrastructure Datacomms Infrastructure, Leased Lines, ISDN Public and Value Added Data Services Leased Lines, ISDN, Frame Relay, ATM Brief overviews on all of the major telecommunications carriers and service providers in 26 latin american countriesThe Latin American and Caribbean economy grew by 4.5% in 2005, and the region’s per capita GDP is estimated to have risen by about 3%. All Latin American countries recorded positive growth rates, ranging from 1.8% in Haiti to 9.3% in Venezuela. Economic expansion is expected to continue unabated in 2006, and ease slightly in 2007. GDP growth for Latin America and the Caribbean is projected to be 4.6% in 2006, and 4.1% in 2007. The drive towards consolidation, witnessed in 2004, continued in 2005-2006, with América Móvil buying mobile operations in Chile, Peru, and Paraguay; Telecom Italia divesting its investments in Chile, Peru, and Venezuela; and Verizon deciding to pull out of the region altogether. In April 2006, Verizon agreed to sell Verizon Dominicana (Dominican Republic), Telecomunicaciones de Puerto Rico, and CANTV (Venezuela) to América Móvil and Telmex. Despite a low 17% average teledensity in the whole Latin American and Caribbean region, fixed-line growth continued to stagnate in 2005. Telecom infrastructure varies greatly from country to country and from urban to rural areas. There is a marked trend towards the use of alternative systems in fixed-line telephony, especially Wireless Local Loop (WLL) and Voice over Internet Protocol (VoIP). |