Telecommunications [Brazil]

Although information technology is a burgeoning industry in Brazil, the closely related telecommunications sector has not kept pace. A huge, unsatisfied demand must wait for private investment to upgrade and expand services and offer new ones. With the government committed to selling to private interests much of the telecommunications sector, US long distance and regional telephone companies, and many value-added resellers and equipment vendors are mapping out business strategies for the country. Today, the telecom market is worth US $8 billion, and could grow to $11 billion by the end of 1998. Between 1996 and 1999, an estimated US $32 billion must be invested in Brazil´s communications infrastructure to raise the basic wire-line connections to a desired 33 million, up from 14.2 million in April 1994. Telebras, the government communications company, could perhaps come up with half of the amount needed. The remainder will have to come from private investors, domestic and foreign, hence the Ministry of Communication´s desire to sell-off government-owned telecommunications firms