Rural Telecommunications in Latin America

Over the last decade, Latin American telecommunications authorities have shown a growing concern for rural services reflecting their governments' increasing interest in this subject in the context of social and economic development. This paper presents a broad review of the existing situation of rural telecommunications in Latin America; details, though interesting in some cases, are not included except when necessary for the interpretation of the general problem. Rural communications, as reported here, refers only to telephony and telegraphy; other services, especially radio and television broadcasting, are not considered although they can be related to rural programs.