DUBLIN –(Business Wire)– Research and Markets (http://www.researchandmarkets.com/research/79c421/latin_american_tel) has announced the addition of the “Latin American Telecommunications Infrastructure – 8th Edition” report to their offering.

This report covers telecommunications infrastructure developments in Latin America and the Caribbean. The countries covered in this report include: Argentina, Belize, Bolivia, Brazil, Chile, Colombia, Costa Rica, Cuba, the Dominican Republic, Ecuador, El Salvador, Guatemala, Guyana, Haiti, Honduras, Jamaica, Mexico, Nicaragua, Panama, Paraguay, Peru, Puerto Rico, Suriname, Uruguay, Venezuela, and the small Caribbean island nations.

In the Latin American and the Caribbean region, telecom infrastructure varies from nonexistent to rudimentary, and from adequate to well advanced. Despite a low 18% teledensity (in most OECD countries teledensity ranges between 40% and 65%), fixed-line growth in most countries has stagnated since 2001, with consumers favouring mobile phones over fixed-lines. The highest teledensity rates in Latin America can be found in Costa Rica (32.5%) and Uruguay (28.7%), where interestingly the incumbent operator is state-owned, while the lowest rates are found in Haiti (1.4%) and Nicaragua (4.6%). Venezuela recorded the fastest growing fixed-line market in 2008, following the renationalisation of its incumbentCANTV ( News – Alert). VoIP has become popular throughout the region, although the situation in each country is different. Some governments only allow licensed fixed-line voice operators to provide VoIP. Others require operators to be registered or to hold a specific concession. And others regard VoIP as a VAS that doesn’t require regulating and is covered by a regime of free competition. The only countries where VoIP is still a monopoly are Paraguay and Cuba. Besides making voice communications accessible to poorer people, VoIP has been instrumental for the success of telecentres and cybercafés, which have in turn been a key element for Internet growth in Latin America.

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