Anatel: Internet penetration most important challenge in Brazil
latintrade.com
09/20/2002 - Source: BNamericas
Increasing Internet penetration in Brazil will be the most significant challenge for the telecoms sector over the next three years, according to Edmundo Matarazzo, the director of universalization for Brazil's telecoms regulator Anatel. A major technical difficulty in increasing the penetration is the limitations of telcos' networks, built over the past few years for fixed line services, and not for broadband, Matarazzo told participants of a debate held at the Enterprise Latin America wireless conference on Wednesday in Sao Paulo. At present, Brazil has 400,000-500,000 ADSL users, compared to 48 million fixed line terminals, he said. According to Matarazzo, the ultimate objective with increasing Internet penetration is to make more e-government services available. "Instead of having our urban health centers being so congested, for example, we would like to get information out to the citizens where they are," he said. Increased use of e-government services benefits telcos by increasing traffic, he noted, adding that, according to Anatel, e-government could be the only 'killer application' for the residential market. Anatel was created in 1998 to regulate the privatization of the Brazilian telecoms sector. |
