Argentina - Broadband and Broadcasting Market - Background Report

Synopsis

After slowing down during the economic recession of 2001/02, Argentina’s Internet market made a remarkable recovery. A factor that helped the Internet uptake was the declining price of PCs, spurred along by the government’s initiative dubbed ‘programa MiPC’. Free Internet access has been popular with Argentineans. It continued to grow for three years after dial-up had started to wane. ADSL skyrocketed following the country’s economic turn-around in 2004. Several companies launched WiMAX services, including Ertach, Alvarion, and VeloCom. Ertach launched the first certified fixed WiMAX deployment in Latin America in late 2004. Cable TV experienced remarkable growth in Argentina during the 1990s. After amassing debts acquiring cable TV firms across the country, Cablevisión and Multicanal were forced into default by the devaluation of the Argentine peso. This report provides background information for the more regularly updated Argentina - Broadband and Broadcasting Market - Overview, Statistics and Forecasts. As such, it covers details on the history and development of Argentina’s broadband and broadcasting market that are absent from the more up-to-date report, but it does not contain forecasts or statistics.