Communications in Colombia
Encyclopedia
Since being liberalized in 1991, the Colombia
n telecommunication
s sector has added new services, expanded coverage, improved efficiency, and lowered costs. The sector has had the second largest (after energy) investment in infrastructure (54 percent) since 1997. However, the economic downturn between 1999 and 2002
adversely affected telecommunications. During this period, Colombia’s telecommunications industry lost US$2 billion despite a profit of US$1 billion in local service. In June 2003, the government liquidated
the state-owned and heavily indebted National Telecommunications Company (Empresa Nacional de Telecomunicaciones—Telecom) and replaced it with Colombia Telecomunicaciones (Colombia Telecom). The measure enabled the industry to expand rapidly, and in 2004 it constituted 2.8 percent of gross domestic product
(GDP). Telefónica
of Spain acquired a 50 percent share in the company in 2006.
As a result of increasing competition, Colombia has a relatively modern telecommunications infrastructure that primarily serves larger towns and cities. Colombia’s telecommunication system includes INTELSAT
, 11 domestic satellite Earth station
s, and a nationwide microwave radio relay system.
(17 percent in 2006). However, there is a steep imbalance between rural and urban areas, with some regions below 10 percent and the big cities exceeding 30 percent. Bogotá
, Medellín
, and Cali
account for about 50 percent of telephone lines in use. By the end of 2005, the number of telephone main lines in use totaled 7,851,649. Colombia Telecom accounted for only about 31 percent of these lines; 27 other operators accounted for the rest.
Colombia’s mobile market is one of the fastest-growing businesses in the country. In mid-2004 mobile telephones overtook fixed lines in service for the first time. By 2005 Colombia had the highest mobile phone density (90 percent) in Latin America, as compared with the region’s average density of 70 percent. The number of mobile telephone subscribers totaled an estimated 31 million in 2007, as compared to 21.8 million in 2005 and 6.8 million in 2001.
(RTVC) replaced the liquidated Instituto Nacional de Radio y Televisión
(Inravisión) as the government-run radio and television broadcasting service, which oversees three national television stations and five radio companies (which operate about a dozen principal networks). Colombia has about 60 television stations, including seven low-power stations. In 2000 the population had about 11.9 million television receivers in use. Of the approximately 515 radio stations, 454 are AM
; 34, FM
; and 27, shortwave
.
, Mexico
, and Argentina
in terms of online usage. It had an estimated total of 900,000 Internet
subscribers by the end of 2005, a figure that equated to 4,739,000 Internet users, or 11.5 percent of the 2005 population (10.9 per 100 inhabitants). By late 2009 39% of households had internet access Colombia had 581,877 Internet hosts in 2006. Although as many as 70 percent of Colombians accessed the Internet over their ordinary telephone lines, dial-up access is losing ground to broadband
. In 2005 Colombia had 345,000 broadband subscriber lines, or one per 100 inhabitants. In 2006 the number of personal computer
s per 1,000 people increased to an estimated 87 per 1,000 inhabitants, a rate still below that in other large Latin American economies. The internet country code is .co
.
), streets are numbered. North-south streets are called calle, while east-west streets are called carrerra. South-west to north-east streets are called diagonal, while south-east to north-west streets are called transversal. It is fair to say that calles and carrerras do not always line up in a grid pattern.
House numbers are another matter. Rather than simply numbering the houses from 1 onwards, they are numbered by the first "crossing" street, and then the number of meters away from that street the front door is. This goes on until there is another "crossing" street, at which point the houses on the next block go up in number.
As an example, a typical house number in Bogotá
could be: Calle 52 N° 42-18, Bogotá. This would indicate that the particular house in question is on Calle 52, approximately 18 meters in from Carrerra 42. To further the example, if the block closest to Carrerra 42 was only 100 meters long, the closest house to the next "crossing" street, Carrerra 43, could be numbered N° 43-05. Sometimes letters are added to the street numbers to differentiate actual streets from alleys or dead ends.
Accuracy isn't the focus of the design of the addresses, therefore, numbers simply alternate on opposite sides of the street.
Colombia
Colombia, officially the Republic of Colombia , is a unitary constitutional republic comprising thirty-two departments. The country is located in northwestern South America, bordered to the east by Venezuela and Brazil; to the south by Ecuador and Peru; to the north by the Caribbean Sea; to the...
n telecommunication
Telecommunication
Telecommunication is the transmission of information over significant distances to communicate. In earlier times, telecommunications involved the use of visual signals, such as beacons, smoke signals, semaphore telegraphs, signal flags, and optical heliographs, or audio messages via coded...
s sector has added new services, expanded coverage, improved efficiency, and lowered costs. The sector has had the second largest (after energy) investment in infrastructure (54 percent) since 1997. However, the economic downturn between 1999 and 2002
Economy of Colombia
Colombia has a free market economy with major commercial and investment ties to the United States. Transition from a highly regulated economy has been underway for more than a decade....
adversely affected telecommunications. During this period, Colombia’s telecommunications industry lost US$2 billion despite a profit of US$1 billion in local service. In June 2003, the government liquidated
Liquidation
In law, liquidation is the process by which a company is brought to an end, and the assets and property of the company redistributed. Liquidation is also sometimes referred to as winding-up or dissolution, although dissolution technically refers to the last stage of liquidation...
the state-owned and heavily indebted National Telecommunications Company (Empresa Nacional de Telecomunicaciones—Telecom) and replaced it with Colombia Telecomunicaciones (Colombia Telecom). The measure enabled the industry to expand rapidly, and in 2004 it constituted 2.8 percent of gross domestic product
Gross domestic product
Gross domestic product refers to the market value of all final goods and services produced within a country in a given period. GDP per capita is often considered an indicator of a country's standard of living....
(GDP). Telefónica
Telefónica
Telefónica, S.A. is a Spanish broadband and telecommunications provider in Europe and Latin America. Operating globally, it is the third largest provider in the world...
of Spain acquired a 50 percent share in the company in 2006.
As a result of increasing competition, Colombia has a relatively modern telecommunications infrastructure that primarily serves larger towns and cities. Colombia’s telecommunication system includes INTELSAT
Intelsat
Intelsat, Ltd. is a communications satellite services provider.Originally formed as International Telecommunications Satellite Organization , it was—from 1964 to 2001—an intergovernmental consortium owning and managing a constellation of communications satellites providing international broadcast...
, 11 domestic satellite Earth station
Earth station
A ground station, earth station, or earth terminal is a terrestrial terminal station designed for extraplanetary telecommunication with spacecraft, and/or reception of radio waves from an astronomical radio source. Ground stations are located either on the surface of the Earth, or within Earth's...
s, and a nationwide microwave radio relay system.
Telephones
The country’s teledensity (the density of telephone lines in a community) is relatively high for Latin AmericaLatin America
Latin America is a region of the Americas where Romance languages – particularly Spanish and Portuguese, and variably French – are primarily spoken. Latin America has an area of approximately 21,069,500 km² , almost 3.9% of the Earth's surface or 14.1% of its land surface area...
(17 percent in 2006). However, there is a steep imbalance between rural and urban areas, with some regions below 10 percent and the big cities exceeding 30 percent. Bogotá
Bogotá
Bogotá, Distrito Capital , from 1991 to 2000 called Santa Fé de Bogotá, is the capital, and largest city, of Colombia. It is also designated by the national constitution as the capital of the department of Cundinamarca, even though the city of Bogotá now comprises an independent Capital district...
, Medellín
Medellín
Medellín , officially the Municipio de Medellín or Municipality of Medellín, is the second largest city in Colombia. It is in the Aburrá Valley, one of the more northerly of the Andes in South America. It has a population of 2.3 million...
, and Cali
Calì
Calì, also written in English as Cali, is an Italian surname, widespread mainly in the Ionian side of Sicily.For the surname Calì is assumed the origin of the Greek word kalos , or from its Sanskrit root kali, "time."The surname refers to:...
account for about 50 percent of telephone lines in use. By the end of 2005, the number of telephone main lines in use totaled 7,851,649. Colombia Telecom accounted for only about 31 percent of these lines; 27 other operators accounted for the rest.
Colombia’s mobile market is one of the fastest-growing businesses in the country. In mid-2004 mobile telephones overtook fixed lines in service for the first time. By 2005 Colombia had the highest mobile phone density (90 percent) in Latin America, as compared with the region’s average density of 70 percent. The number of mobile telephone subscribers totaled an estimated 31 million in 2007, as compared to 21.8 million in 2005 and 6.8 million in 2001.
Radio and television
In late 2004, Radio Televisión Nacional de ColombiaRadio Televisión Nacional de Colombia
Radio Televisión Nacional de Colombia is a colombian state-owned public service broadcaster controlled by the Ministry of Information Technology...
(RTVC) replaced the liquidated Instituto Nacional de Radio y Televisión
Instituto Nacional de Radio y Televisión
The Instituto Nacional de Radio y Televisión was Colombia's national public broadcasting organization between 1964 and 2004. It was created by Decree 3267 of 20 December 1963, which declared that from 1 April 1964 the country's public radio and television broadcasting service would be provided by...
(Inravisión) as the government-run radio and television broadcasting service, which oversees three national television stations and five radio companies (which operate about a dozen principal networks). Colombia has about 60 television stations, including seven low-power stations. In 2000 the population had about 11.9 million television receivers in use. Of the approximately 515 radio stations, 454 are AM
AM broadcasting
AM broadcasting is the process of radio broadcasting using amplitude modulation. AM was the first method of impressing sound on a radio signal and is still widely used today. Commercial and public AM broadcasting is carried out in the medium wave band world wide, and on long wave and short wave...
; 34, FM
FM broadcasting
FM broadcasting is a broadcasting technology pioneered by Edwin Howard Armstrong which uses frequency modulation to provide high-fidelity sound over broadcast radio. The term "FM band" describes the "frequency band in which FM is used for broadcasting"...
; and 27, shortwave
Shortwave
Shortwave radio refers to the upper MF and all of the HF portion of the radio spectrum, between 1,800–30,000 kHz. Shortwave radio received its name because the wavelengths in this band are shorter than 200 m which marked the original upper limit of the medium frequency band first used...
.
Internet
Colombia is still far behind BrazilBrazil
Brazil , officially the Federative Republic of Brazil , is the largest country in South America. It is the world's fifth largest country, both by geographical area and by population with over 192 million people...
, Mexico
Mexico
The United Mexican States , commonly known as Mexico , is a federal constitutional republic in North America. It is bordered on the north by the United States; on the south and west by the Pacific Ocean; on the southeast by Guatemala, Belize, and the Caribbean Sea; and on the east by the Gulf of...
, and Argentina
Argentina
Argentina , officially the Argentine Republic , is the second largest country in South America by land area, after Brazil. It is constituted as a federation of 23 provinces and an autonomous city, Buenos Aires...
in terms of online usage. It had an estimated total of 900,000 Internet
Internet
The Internet is a global system of interconnected computer networks that use the standard Internet protocol suite to serve billions of users worldwide...
subscribers by the end of 2005, a figure that equated to 4,739,000 Internet users, or 11.5 percent of the 2005 population (10.9 per 100 inhabitants). By late 2009 39% of households had internet access Colombia had 581,877 Internet hosts in 2006. Although as many as 70 percent of Colombians accessed the Internet over their ordinary telephone lines, dial-up access is losing ground to broadband
Broadband Internet access
Broadband Internet access, often shortened to just "broadband", is a high data rate, low-latency connection to the Internet— typically contrasted with dial-up access using a 56 kbit/s modem or satellite Internet with inherently high latency....
. In 2005 Colombia had 345,000 broadband subscriber lines, or one per 100 inhabitants. In 2006 the number of personal computer
Personal computer
A personal computer is any general-purpose computer whose size, capabilities, and original sales price make it useful for individuals, and which is intended to be operated directly by an end-user with no intervening computer operator...
s per 1,000 people increased to an estimated 87 per 1,000 inhabitants, a rate still below that in other large Latin American economies. The internet country code is .co
.co
.co is the country code top-level domain assigned to the Republic of Colombia. It is administered by .CO Internet S.A.S., a strategic venture formed between Arcelandia S.A. and Neustar, Inc...
.
Addresses
Colombia uses a unique system of addressing in order to combat the need for postal codes. In every city (with the notable exception of Cartagena de IndiasCartagena, Colombia
Cartagena de Indias , is a large Caribbean beach resort city on the northern coast of Colombia in the Caribbean Coast Region and capital of Bolívar Department...
), streets are numbered. North-south streets are called calle, while east-west streets are called carrerra. South-west to north-east streets are called diagonal, while south-east to north-west streets are called transversal. It is fair to say that calles and carrerras do not always line up in a grid pattern.
House numbers are another matter. Rather than simply numbering the houses from 1 onwards, they are numbered by the first "crossing" street, and then the number of meters away from that street the front door is. This goes on until there is another "crossing" street, at which point the houses on the next block go up in number.
As an example, a typical house number in Bogotá
Bogotá
Bogotá, Distrito Capital , from 1991 to 2000 called Santa Fé de Bogotá, is the capital, and largest city, of Colombia. It is also designated by the national constitution as the capital of the department of Cundinamarca, even though the city of Bogotá now comprises an independent Capital district...
could be: Calle 52 N° 42-18, Bogotá. This would indicate that the particular house in question is on Calle 52, approximately 18 meters in from Carrerra 42. To further the example, if the block closest to Carrerra 42 was only 100 meters long, the closest house to the next "crossing" street, Carrerra 43, could be numbered N° 43-05. Sometimes letters are added to the street numbers to differentiate actual streets from alleys or dead ends.
Accuracy isn't the focus of the design of the addresses, therefore, numbers simply alternate on opposite sides of the street.