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COMMUNICATIONS-LATIN AMERICA:
Mobile Phones
Only a Partial Solution
Mario Osava
RIO DE JANEIRO, (IPS) -
The statistics seem to reflect
encouraging progress: the number
of telephones per 100
inhabitants rose from 23.12 to
52.7 in South America between
1999 and 2004, while Central
America experienced a leap from
17.24 to 47.9, more than
tripling the population's access
to telephone service.
But the statistics are deceptive
when it comes to progress in
information and communications
technologies. The lion's share
of this increase corresponds to
mobile phones, which have
enjoyed a boom across Latin
America in recent years, but do
not solve the problem of access
to the Internet and other
innovations.
Of the 193 million telephone
subscribers in South America in
2004, 62.6 percent were mobile
phone users. While the number of
fixed-line telephone connections
grew by eight percent annually
over the last five years,
cellphone use expanded by 32.6
percent. The figures for Central
America are similar: 10.3
percent and 38.8 percent,
respectively.
In the meantime, 80.9 percent of
mobile phones in South America
and 89.8 percent in Central
America are used with prepaid
cards, which demonstrates how
this option has made it possible
for even those with limited
economic resources to have
access to telecommunications
services.
Millions use their cellphones
almost exclusively to receive
calls. This is the case of
teenagers whose parents provide
them with mobile phones in order
to keep track of them, as well
as street vendors and informal
sector workers for whom cellular
phones serve the function of a
mobile office.
"I almost never make calls, but
having a cell phone has made my
life easier. I get more work
because people can contact me at
any time," Madalena da Costa, a
domestic worker with a number of
different employers, told IPS.
It is also an economical way of
communicating, as she spends
just 20 reals (under nine
dollars) on a single prepaid
card every month.
Practically all of the mobile
phones in some of the region's
countries are used on a prepaid
basis. This was the case for 99
percent of cellphones in
Suriname last year, 93.5 percent
in Mexico, 93.3 percent in
Venezuela and 80.5 percent in
Brazil, as compared with six
percent in the United States.
These figures were released by
the International
Telecommunication Union (ITU) at
Telecom Americas 2005, an
international forum held in
Salvador da Bahía, Brazil this
Monday through Thursday.
The event, which included an
exhibit of telecommunications
equipment and technology,
attracted a total of 2,100
participants and visitors.
The relative lack of progress in
fixed-line telecommunications is
an obstacle to digital
inclusion, since this is still
the principal means of
connection to the Internet,
observed ITU deputy secretary
general Roberto Blois.
In Brazil, for example, the
number of fixed-line telephones
in use has ceased to grow
further since 2002, and has held
steady at roughly 39 million.
While the number of Internet
users has rapidly expanded, it
had still reached only 12 per
100 inhabitants throughout Latin
America and the Caribbean last
year, which is five times less
than in the United States and
Canada.
"Digital exclusion is only a
symptom, the illness is economic
exclusion," said Reza Jafari,
chair of the Telecom Americas
2005 Advisory Committee,
referring to the fact that
poverty and inequality are the
root causes for the limited
access to new information and
communications technologies (ICTs)
in Latin America.
The "high cost" was the reason
for not owning a computer given
by 59 percent of Mexicans
surveyed, while 21 percent said
they did not consider it
necessary. In Latin America,
unlike the United States and
Canada, Internet users far
outnumber computer owners, since
those who cannot afford one of
their own use computers at work,
school, friend's homes or cyber
cafes.
Consequently, many of the
technological innovations
featured at Telecom Americas
2005, like "triple play",
through which voice telephony,
video entertainment (like
broadcast television) and data
services (mainly the Internet)
are delivered over the same
network and/or by the same
service provider, are far beyond
the reach of the majority of
Latin Americans.
The new wireless technologies
are also clearly not an option
for prepaid mobile phone
customers.
And broadband connectivity,
while relatively commonplace in
most developed nations, is a
privilege enjoyed by less than
one percent of the population in
most Latin American countries
and slightly over one percent in
Argentina and Brazil. Chile is
an exception, with a figure of
5.9 percent.
As a result, only a wealthy few
have access to cost-cutting
innovations like free
Internet-based long distance
calling, not to mention the
inequity that stems from unequal
access to information and
knowledge.
But as Carlos Afonso of Brazil's
Information Network for the
Third Sector (RITS) commented to
IPS, issues like overcoming the
digital gap are of little
interest to participants in
events like Telecom Americas
2005, an event primarily geared
to the business sector.
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