Telecom in Latin America

The Latin American communications industry is at a crossroad facing alternative development paths. The cycle initiated in the early 1990s with the privatization and liberalization of telecommunications has led to an exponential growth in service adoption across wireless, Internet and pay-TV services. In addition, the supply side has been impacted by successive economic crises (1995, 2002) and a wave of industry consolidation leading to the emergence of balanced oligopolistic industry structures.

Looking forward, the industry is facing numerous issues, the outcome of which will determine its ultimate performance, both in terms of meeting social and economic needs and generating reasonable profits to its shareholders. Among these issues are:

· How will the demand growth opportunity for the uncovered segments of the population be tackled in the region?

· How should new regulatory frameworks be defined in order to stimulate infrastructure investment in a converging industry environment?

· What is the optimal industry structure that will ensure further service adoption, technological development, and industry sustainability?

for more info, contact: 

Columbia Institute for Tele-Information, Columbia University (United States)

Centro de Tecnología y Sociedad, Universidad de San Andrés (Argentina)

Programa de Investigación en Telecomunicaciones, Centro de Investigación y Docencia Económica (México)

Centro de Politicas, Direitto, Economia e Tecnologías de Comunicacoes, Universidade de Brasilia (Brasil)

Enter, Instituto de Empresa (Spain)