"Explosive" growth of mobile telephony and the Internet in Andean countries underscored

Lima, August 3. Andean Community Telecommunications Enterprises Association (ASETA) Secretary General Marcelo López Arjona underscored the "explosive" growth of mobile telephony and the Internet in the subregion and urged authorities to join efforts in order to enter the Global Information Society.

Cellular telephony subscribers, almost nonexistent at the opening of the 90s, now number over 8 million in the five Andean Community (CAN) countries: 3.4 million in Venezuela, 3.2 in Colombia, one million in Peru, 400 thousand in Ecuador, and 380 thousand in Bolivia.

The rate of penetration –number of cellular subscribers per 100 inhabitants— in the CAN is 7.36: almost the same as in Brazil (8.95) and Mexico (7.83), and roughly one-quarter that in the United States (30.78).

He reported that in the case of the Internet, while the number of subscribers in the year 2000 in the CAN is still insignificant –one and a half million versus 11 million for Latin America and 321 million worldwide— , it is doubling every year and shows signs that it will continue to grow.

"Potential is what is important here. This is a significant market with enormous possibilities for growth. Our penetration rate is 1.5 percent and our target should be 5 percent. To reach it, barriers must be removed, both in the case of access to terminals and equipment, in order to make its use more democratic, and with regard to charges, thereby facilitating the people’s access to servers," López Arjona stressed.

With regard to fixed telephony, the 6 million 450 thousand subscribers in the CAN in 1992 had risen to 14 million 860 thousand by 1999, placing the subregion, density-wise (13.8), on a level similar to that of Mexico (11.22) and Brazil (14.87) and at almost one-fifth that of the United States (66.1).

Created in 1974, ASETA, the Association of CAN Telecommunication Service Operators, is a non-profit international organization headquartered in Quito and devoted to contributing to the development and growth of its members and, consequently, the harmonious development of the sector and of the integration process.

López Ariona considered one of the most important achievements of the organization to be its contribution to implementing the Andean Digital Corridor, a subregional information highway with ground, undersea, and satellite routes and border links that interconnects the national networks.

"This is a fully digitalized highway implemented as of 1994 and today covering all of the Andean territory, which was built through the participation and investments of the Telecommunications Operators in the five countries," he explained.

The Association has also contributed to the establishment of new services in the subregion, such as data transmission, the Internet, and video conferencing, among others, and the launching of the process to liberalize and integrate the CAN market for telecommunication services.

In explaining the strategic outlook for 2000-2005, López Arjona stated that for ASETA, "the telecommunications of the future should be the basic launching pad to enable the Andean countries to enter the Global Information and Knowledge Society."

"In order to accomplish this, it is necessary to interconnect authorities and operators; build the Andean information infrastructure, elaborate a body of Andean provisions for establishing services and applications, and develop its human capital," he pointed out.

The continuing interlinkage of operators and regulators is essential "today, for it is impossible for them to exist apart," inasmuch as technology is evolving rapidly and States must promote and regulate the establishment of networks and services as needed.

"This relationship already exists, but it must be more free-flowing and continuous," he stressed.

He went on to draw attention to the importance of human resources and reported that ASETA has set up the Andean Training Network based on cooperative efforts between telecommunications training and research centers in the Andean countries in order to offer specialized courses to technicians and professionals in the subregion.

"By way of example, we are starting to offer a post-graduate course on Telecommunications Law and Management in Quito, with the participation of the Simón Bolívar Andean University of Ecuador and the External University of Colombia."

As for projects and activities in the pipeline, he mentioned the Andean Internet System which seeks to create a technological platform for providing new Internet protocol-based (IP) services that will underpin the liberalization of the trade in services in the subregion by contributing to the incorporation of new operators or broadening the field of action of already existing subregional operators.

The first phase of this system is already operational, with the participation of Venezuelan, Colombian, and Ecuadorian Internet servers. The second will enter into effect in early 2001 with the installation of nodes or NAPs in each of the five countries, to interlink Internet servers at the subregional level.

In explaining the benefits of this project, he stated that by sharing the same infrastructure and creating local, national, and Andean networks, we can avoid having all communications be routed to northern country nodes, as is the case today.

"This means that we will be able to exchange local and regional information without having to use international links." Other benefits will be direct interconnections between CAN countries for Internet traffic, improvement in the service, and the development of other services or applications.

In summing up the challenges that face Andean telecommunications for the year 2005, the ASETA Secretary General pointed out that " the infrastructure must be created and services added so that we can use this platform to enter the Global Information Society and train the people."