Peru - Fixed-Line Market and Infrastructure - Background Report

Synopsis

Competition in long-distance telephony began in 1999. Immediately after liberalisation, in the January of that year, 17 companies applied for long-distance licences. Tele2000 (which became BellSouth Peru and was later absorbed by Movistar), FirstCom (now Telmex/Claro Perú), Global Village Telecom (now Gilat to Home Perú), and Ormeño Comunicaciones (which discontinued operations in 2004) were the first companies authorised to provide long-distance services in competition with the incumbent Telefónica del Perú (TdP).

FirstCom Peru, owned by FirstCom, started as a publicly traded firm with operations in Peru, Chile, and Colombia. Within its first six months of operation, FirstCom Peru had installed 800km of fibre optic cable in metropolitan Lima. FirstCom Peru was the first new market entrant to reach an interconnection agreement with TdP.

Besides its long-distance licence, Gilat to Home Perú holds a nationwide rural public telephony concession. It received the concession first for northern Peru, where it began to provide services in 1999. In December 2001, GTH’s public telephony concession was extended to rural areas throughout the country.

This report provides background information for the more regularly updated Peru - Fixed-Line Market and Infrastructure - Overview, Statistics and Forecasts. As such, it covers details on the history and development of Peru’s fixed-line market and telecom infrastructure that are absent from the more up-to-date report, but it does not contain forecasts or statistics.