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Overview:
Latin America and the Caribbean hold many opportunities for fiber optic cable deployment, dense wavelength division multiplexing (DWDM) and Synchronous Digital Hierarchy (SDH), and as several US carriers expand into Mexico and further south they will install more of these products. Latin America is well behind in telecommunications development, but with rapidly growing populations and in rural areas low teledensity, the demand is expected to grow. $261 million was spent on fiber in 1996, which is expected to exceed $600 million in 2001. Annual deployment of single mode fiber grew from just under 2 million fiber km in 1997 and is expected to be about 4.2 million km in 2005. Cable television has also increased fiber deployment.
Argentina was one of the first countries in Latin America to privatize its telecommunications services. Each of the carriers is upgrading networks, installing new fiber optic networks, and many international corporations now have a presence here, both carriers and manufacturers. Brazil has attracted a number of suppliers and privatized Telebras in 1998. Telebras is ranked 18th among the world's largest telecommunications carriers. Chile and Mexico have the most liberalized markets to date. Embratel was the first of the South American carriers to test WDM using Pirelli equipment.
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