Source: CEPAL 2000 and Subtel 2001
Site Map |Introduction |
Human Resources |
Policies |
ICT |
Investment |
SME |
Directories
Market reforms have been largely triggered and managed by the Subsecretaría de Telecomunicaciones (SUBTEL) and its reporting body, the Ministry of Transportation and Telecommunications. SUBTEL has had a close and active co-operation with the industry in recent years, leading to the foundation in 2000 of the Comité Consultivo de Telecomunicaciones.
In 2000 investments into the telecommunications sector reached around US$ 1,120 million, representing almost 8 percent of total national investments. Around 40 percent of it accounted for investments into mobile telephone services and further 10 percent into projects related to the development of fiber-optic networks and submarine cables.
Spanish company Telefonica de España, Telecom Italia are some of the important telephone companies.
Distribution of investments in communication services in Chile, 1999
Source: CEPAL 2000 and Subtel 2001
Between 1987 and 2000 the number of lines per 100 inhabitants increased from 5.3 to more than 21. Most of these lines (57.4 percent), however, are installed in the capital, Santiago.
To enhance the supply of fixed communication services, and to increase the competitiveness of the market, the Chilean government recently granted three national and three regional wireless local loop (WLL) licenses. Close to forty companies (including mobile operators as well as broadband provider, or equipment producers) showed interest. Five of them ended up postulating for the final contest. WLL services have been placed in the 3.400-3.700MHz band.
Chile's most dynamic telecommunication services are mobile and Internet. The Internet has been growing at sustained pace in spite of a relatively high penetration rate. The number of dial-up accounts, for example, grew in the second semester of 2000 some 23.4 percent, while the number of cable modem and xDSL connections grew by some 223.3 percent in the same period. By the end of 2000 the Internet had reached an estimated 13 percent of the population. By the end of 2000 the Internet already accounted for almost 20 percent of the total telecommunications traffic in the country.
Internet access was in the hands of 38 Internet Service providers (ISPs), but market share was highly concentrated with more than ¾ of accounts belonging to the two incumbents, Telefonica and Entel.
Fixed line services were growing at an average of 20 per cent in the first three years of the 1990s but had dropped to 2 per cent in 1999 and 8.2 per cent in 2000. The growth has been so staggering that by the end of 2000 the number of mobile subscribers had exceeded the number of fixed line subscribers.