Telecommunications as a Factor in the Economic Development of a Country

Many different techniques have been studied in the past for correlating the growth of a telecommunications network with the economic growth of a country in an attempt to allocate capital resources optimally. With suitable modifications, several of these techniques have been found to have some broad application, but no universally applicable technique has yet been developed. Of the methods developed to date, however, several of the more intensive ones can usefully be applied to developing countries where the present telephone density is very low in comparison with the industrialized countries. This paper presents the results of using a macroanalytic technique in correlating these factors for several selected countries in Latin America. The results are then discussed in the context of basic telephone demand parameters and the current dynamic technological and economic environment.