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WEEKLY NEWSLETTER
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Chile
Index
Chile's Ministry of Transportation and
Telecommunications
oversees the telecommunications sector. The development of
this
natural monopoly (telecommunications) is highly influenced
by the
type of regulations to which it is subjected. In the
mid-1980s,
Chile had an estimated deficit of 300,000 telephone lines.
This
deficit had accumulated through years of deficient
management by
the public sector. It was clear that major investments
were needed
and that the old regulatory framework was outmoded.
Reforms that directly affected telecommunications
occurred in
1982 and 1985. Before the 1982 reform, Chile's
telecommunications
sector had been dominated by state-owned national
companies.
Santiago and the central part of the country had been
served by the
Telephone Company of Chile (Compañía de Teléfonos de
Chile--CTC),
a subsidiary of Corfo. The southern part of the country
was served
by two private companies, the National Telephone Company
(Compañía
Nacional de Teléfonos--CNT) and the Telephone Company of
Coihaique
(Compañía de Teléfonos de Coihaique). Another Corfo
subsidiary, the
National Telecommunications Enterprise (Empresa Nacional
de
Telecomunicaciones--Entel), had controlled Chile's
international
telephone service and much of the domestic long-distance
service
(including Easter Island).
Following key pricing reforms in 1987, most of the
state-owned
telecommunications firms were privatized during the
1987-89 period.
The National Telephone Company of Spain (Telefónica)
obtained
control of CTC, which has been 50 percent privatized.
Entel
retained its monopolies. By 1991 Chile had 768,000
telephones. CTC
plans called for installing 190,000 new lines in 1992 and
investing
US$500 million in 1993 in expanding and upgrading the
telephone
network. This would permit the installation of 280,000 new
lines
and the replacement of the remaining analog switching
systems that
were serving 320,000 lines in 1992. In April 1992,
however, Chile's
monopoly commission ordered Telefónica to sell its stake
in one of
the two Chilean telephone companies in which it owned
shares--CTC
and Entel. Telefónica was appealing the decision to the
Supreme
Court.
Chile's modern telephone system is based on extensive
microwave
relay facilities. The rapid development of cellular
telephones,
digital technology, and satellite links have put even the
smallest
town in Chile within reach. In 1992 telecommunications
service
increased 36 percent; CTC had installed more than 900,000
telephone
lines by that year. In 1991 there were 4.25 million radios
in the
country
(see The
Media
, ch. 4). The United States firm
ScientificAtlantic , under contract to CTC, built a US$29 million
domestic
digital satellite communications receiving system. Chile
was the
first South American country to establish an emergency
satellite
rescue receiver station. A European Space Agency ERS-1
tracking and
command station is located in Santiago.
Chile has 167 AM radio stations, no FM stations, 131
television
stations, and 12 shortwave radio stations. Most of these
units are
affiliated with the Association of Chilean Broadcasters
(Asociación
de Radiodifusores de Chile--Archi). Chile uses two
Atlantic Ocean
stations and three domestic satellite ground stations of
the
International Telecommunications Satellite Organization
(
Intelsat-- see
Glossary).
Data as of March 1994
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