< Many of these developing countries have wired phone systems that are simply in shambles and cannot support modern communication needs. Building wired networks is too costly and too slow.>
For the last nine years I have been working with (mostly Latin American) issuers in developing countries, mostly M&A and capital markets, and I echo what you say. Even those countries that have financed fixed line systems have done so as buildouts of archaic, legacy systems or have tried to construct new systems with financing as it becomes available, often vendor financed which vendors expect the state/private company to buy switching systems etc. from that vendor, resulting, at times, in a crazy quilt of imperfectly compatible technology. Further, the well publicized difficulties in SE Asia, Russia and Latin America in recent years has made financing for upgrades of legacy systems that much more difficult to obtain. Hence, confirmation for the thesis that WLL is the way to go. (And in countries whose topography makes WLL less than ideal, fixed line is prohibitively expensive).
Anecdotally, I work in the WTC in downtown NYC, where Bell Atlantic has had a large kiosk to sign up tenants and other concourse visitors for digital wireless (CDMA) for about two years. The traffic of interested persons at the kiosk has not let up, so growth in the US is not dead.
Regards. Liacos_samui |
