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358 million telephone lines in Latin America and the Caribbean
At present, several companies coexist and compete by the world-wide market de telephony fixes and cellular, for it, they use resources and technology de end in order to respond to the needs de a market de users every more demanding day. In agreement with a study realized by the Argentine company Latin Convergence, exists 21 companies de telephony in the Latin American market, which operate 358 million telephone lines; de these, 282 million are de fixed lines and 76 million correspond to cellular telephony, technology that in little more than 10 years reached a participation de 27%.
de the eleven more important companies in the market de the cellular telephony, Movable America (Telcel® in Mexico), Telephone Moving body (Pegaso® in our country), BellSouth and Telecom Italian Movile (TIM) operate almost 60 million lines, consequently include 77% de the communications in this sector. Other companies like Verizon (Iusacell in Mexico), Portugal Telecom, Tele Center the West (TCO), Millicom, France Telecom, Nextel and Cable & Wireless have participation minor within the market, but not for this reason, they stop being significant.
As far as the fixed telephony, the companies with greater presence in the Latin American market are: Telephone with 21,5 million lines, Telemar, 17,7 million; Telmex, 14,65 million; and Brazil Telecom, 10,5 million lines; in as much, companies as Company de Telecomunicaciones Bogota (ETB), Telecom Italia, Vésper, Cable & Wireless, Verizon and France Telecom, are groups that support the attacks de the great partnerships, through effective advertizing campaigns.
If to the previous thing, it is added the fact that in the last years, the average densidad de telephone lines by each 100 inhabitants has grown a 15%, according to estimations de the Union the International de Telecomunicaciones (UIT) (www.itu.int/home), an increase de 80 million fixed lines in Latin America is appraised.
International traffic
Besides the standardization de protocols and technologies, international the telephone traffic is carried out by means de a denominated accepted regime de rates de distribution, that consists de a commercial and bilateral relation between the operators de two countries, that establish agreements in order to defer the telephone service in their countries and to compensate the transportation and completion de the originated traffic. Its relation is essentially de cooperation and not de competition.
The operator de a country transports the traffic until his border and he gives the operator de another nation to complete the call, de such form that the operators de different countries collaborate de joint way to complete an international call.
This process is detailed next: in a country the call begins and the operator in the destiny country is in charge to transport it in his territory by the local networks and de long distance, so that this one is given to the person to whom is sent to him. The agreement de rates de distribution will allow that the received international calls are transported and given in all the country.
Served by each operator is not provided de cross-border way, but until the border or towards some intermediate point between the countries, it is possible to be said that the benefit de this type on watch, is comparable to the interchange between two operators in the transport sector.
Each operator is responsible for the incurred costs to settle down the connection and maintenance de its own commutators, in addition, no can enter the territory de the other; either, rent does not exist or payment by the physical facilities, each operator simply will finish to the calls originated in the territory from the other country when crossing the border and entering its system.
Pricing
The “rate de distribution” is the price that the operators de two different countries settle down to quantify the cost de an international minute on watch de telephony between their countries. The proportional part de each operator de the rate de distribution denominates “liquidation tariff”.
The payments de liquidation between operators, happen when the traffic that flows in a direction exceeds to that it flows in the opposite direction. In order to calculate the liquidation payment, the operator will multiply the number de minutes that its traffic de exit, towards a foreign operator, exceeds its traffic de entrance from that foreign operator and, later, will on the other multiply this amount by the tariff de acquired liquidation operator (also well-known like international liquidations). The operator who originates more traffic will have to realize the periodic payments de liquidation to the foreign operator who corresponds to him.
The Regulation de International Telecomunicaciones (RTI) establishes the procedures for the bilateral negotiation de the rates de distribution and arranges that these will settle down, by mutual agreement, between recognized the deprived companies de operation: … “For each service admitted in a given relation, the administrations [or company (s) prevailed (s) de recognized operation (s)] they will establish and review by mutual agreement the applicable rates de distribution among them…”.
Future de the telephony
Latin America has more than 523 million inhabitants, de who, above de 200 million they are in extreme poverty, without access to the technology in some countries; however, the use de the cellular telephony follows in constant growth because the initial costs are cheaper, phenomenon than has influenced so that the industry de the cellular telephony goes developing constant and, according to the Economic Commission for Latin America and the Caribbean (Cepal), thinks that within some years this number will be greater to the one de the fixed telephony.
A very important characteristic de the cellular telephony, in poor or industrialized countries, is not that it facilitates that populations de limited economic resources as much tell on mass media, for his personal life as labor. In Mexico, for example, workers like plumbers, bricklayers, taxi drivers and carpenters, who in their particular addresses do not have telephone, now already count on their “cellular one” what he allows them, to enjoy the benefits de the telephony, and the cellular one generally in particular.
When not requiring de costosísima cable installation, as he happens to the telephony fixes and wire, the operators can increase the supply on watch and, in this way, lower the costs that include the apparatuses.
A study de the Accenture company (www.accenture.com) foretells that, in three years, the number de users de cellular telephones and the amount de fixed lines will get to equal themselves due, fundamentally, to the possibility that has the cellular telephony to take advantage de majors indices connectivity in the movable Internet. Also, a study realized by The Yankee system Group (www.yankeegroup.com) esteem that, “for the end de 2003, 121 million users de the service de cellular telephony in Latin America will exist, which will represent an increase de 17%, data that implies the sale de approximately 36 million apparatuses de cellular communication”. An extract de the study, also detailed that to the telephony it fixes will go less than de a densidad de the 10% in 1995, to a 23% in 2004.
Finally, The Yankee system Group mentions that due to the increase in the value de the market de cellular telecommunications de Latin America, it will go de 19,000 million dollars in 2002 to 28,000 million dollars in 2006, consequently this sector will become one de most attractive de Latin America.
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