Communications in Colombia

Since being liberalized in 1991, the Colombian telecommunications sector has added new services, expanded coverage, improved efficiency, and lowered costs. The sector has had the second largest (after energy) investment in infrastructure (54 percent) since 1997. However, the economic downturn between 1999 and 2002 adversely affected telecommunications. During this period, Colombia’s telecommunications industry lost US$2 billion despite a profit of US$1 billion in local service. In June 2003, the government liquidated the state-owned and heavily indebted National Telecommunications Company (Empresa Nacional de Telecomunicaciones—Telecom) and replaced it with Colombia Telecomunicaciones (Colombia Telecom). The measure enabled the industry to expand rapidly, and in 2004 it constituted 2.8 percent of gross domestic product (GDP). Telefónica of Spain acquired a 50 percent share in the company in 2006.^[1]

As a result of increasing competition, Colombia has a relatively modern telecommunications infrastructure that primarily serves larger towns and cities. Colombia’s telecommunication system includes INTELSAT, 11 domestic satellite Earth stations, and a nationwide microwave radio relay system.^[1]

Telephones

The country’s teledensity (the density of telephone lines in a community) is relatively high for Latin America (17 percent in 2006). However, there is a steep imbalance between rural and urban areas, with some regions below 10 percent and the big cities exceeding 30 percent. Bogotá, Medellín, and Cali account for about 50 percent of telephone lines in use. By the end of 2005, the number of telephone main lines in use totaled 7,851,649. Colombia Telecom accounted for only about 31 percent of these lines; 27 other operators accounted for the rest.^[1]

Colombia’s mobile market is one of the fastest-growing businesses in the country. In mid-2004 mobile telephones overtook fixed lines in service for the first time. By 2005 Colombia had the highest mobile phone density (90 percent) in Latin America, as compared with the region’s average density of 70 percent. The number of mobile telephone subscribers totaled an estimated 31 million in 2007, as compared to 21.8 million in 2005 and 6.8 million in 2001.^[1]

Radio and television

See also: Media of Colombia

In late 2004, Radio Televisión Nacional de Colombia (RTVC) replaced the liquidated Instituto Nacional de Radio y Televisión (Inravisión) as the government-run radio and television broadcasting service, which oversees three national television stations and five radio companies (which operate about a dozen principal networks). Colombia has about 60 television stations, including seven low-power stations. In 2000 the population had about 11.9 million television receivers in use. Of the approximately 515 radio stations, 454 are AM; 34, FM; and 27, shortwave.^[1]

Internet

Main article: Internet in Colombia

Colombia is still far behind Brazil, Mexico, and Argentina in terms of online usage. It had an estimated total of 900,000 Internet subscribers by the end of 2005, a figure that equated to 4,739,000 Internet users, or 11.5 percent of the 2005 population (10.9 per 100 inhabitants). By late 2009 39% of households had internet access Colombia had 581,877 Internet hosts in 2006. Although as many as 70 percent of Colombians accessed the Internet over their ordinary telephone lines, dial-up access is losing ground to broadband. In 2005 Colombia had 345,000 broadband subscriber lines, or one per 100 inhabitants. In 2006 the number of personal computers per 1,000 people increased to an estimated 87 per 1,000 inhabitants, a rate still below that in other large Latin American economies.^[1] The internet country code is .co.

Addresses

Colombia uses a unique system of addressing in order to combat the need for postal codes. In every city (with the notable exception of Cartagena de Indias), streets are numbered. North-south streets are called calle, while east-west streets are called carrerra. South-west to north-east streets are called diagonal, while south-east to north-west streets are called transversal. It is fair to say that calles and carrerras do not always line up in a grid pattern.

House numbers are another matter. Rather than simply numbering the houses from 1 onwards, they are numbered by the first "crossing" street, and then the number of meters away from that street the front door is. This goes on until there is another "crossing" street, at which point the houses on the next block go up in number.

As an example, a typical house number in Bogotá could be: Calle 52 N° 42-18, Bogotá. This would indicate that the particular house in question is on Calle 52, approximately 18 meters in from Carrerra 42. To further the example, if the block closest to Carrerra 42 was only 100 meters long, the closest house to the next "crossing" street, Carrerra 43, could be numbered N° 43-05. Sometimes letters are added to the street numbers to differentiate actual streets from alleys or dead ends.

Accuracy isn't the focus of the design of the addresses, therefore, numbers simply alternate on opposite sides of the street.

References

1. ^ ^{a b c d e f} Colombia country profile. Library of Congress Federal Research Division (February 2007). This article incorporates text from this source, which is in the public domain.

• Internetworldstats.com

External links

• (Spanish) Colombian Ministry of Communications
• (Spanish) Comunicate.com.co, Coldecon, Internet Provider