Summary

• A decade of reforms
• The mobile juggernaut
• Internet heads South
• Performance evaluation
• The rise of telecom regulators
• Enhancing sector efficiency

Tables

• Table 1
• Table 2
• Table 3

What characterises the top mobile performers is that they all permit competitive service provision. In the case of Paraguay, the competitive market structure has proved so successful that there are now more mobilephones than fixed-line ones. Significantly, all the mobile top performers are in South America where competition has been more the norm than in Central America or the Caribbean.

For most indicators, it is the introduction of competition, rather than just the privatisation of the incumbent, that seems to bring about the more significant shifts in performance. But for quality of service, it is often privatisation, and the injection of the profit motive and modern management techniques, which is sufficient to bring about change. One of the most dramatic demonstrations of this is in the reduction in waiting lists and the incidence of faults. For instance, in Argentina, the average waiting time for a new telephone line declined from 3 years in 1991 to 15 days in 1998 while the number of faults per 100 main lines fell from 42 in 1991 to just 17 in 1998.

Successful policy must include the three elements of competition, private sector participation and independent regulation. For much of the decade, the continent has been marked by privatisation without competition and, particularly in the Caribbean, an unclear separation between regulatory and operational functions. Now, as a new millennium dawns, there are signs that the right mix is slowly coming together:

• In several countries of the region, such as Argentina, Mexico or Peru, long periods of exclusivity enjoyed by a privatised incumbent operator are coming to an end and competition is being introduced;
• In other countries which are just embarking upon the liberalization process, such as Brazil, El Salvador or Guatemala, privatisation is being undertaken concurrently with the introduction of competition;
• In still other countries, such as Jamaica or Trinidad & Tobago, governments are bringing forward the end of exclusivity periods.