Telecommunications in Peru include radio and television, fixed and mobile telephones, and the Internet.

Regulation

The technical regulator of communications in Peru is the Presidency of the Minister Council, through the ''Organismo Supervisor de la Inversión Privada en Telecomunicaciones'' (OSIPTEL) in English, Supervisory Agency for Private Investment in Telecommunications. The Ministry of Transport and Communications grants concessions, authorizations, permits and licenses."Peru Telecommunication Regulation"
, Maria Luisa Gubbins, Lex Mundi, 2010. The resale of telecommunication services is permitted as a regulated activity.

Voice Over IP Voice over Internet Protocol (VoIP), also known as IP telephony, is a set of technologies used primarily for voice communication sessions over Internet Protocol (IP) networks, such as the Internet. VoIP enables voice calls to be transmitted as ...

(VoIP) services are not expressly regulated, but may need a concession or a registry depending on the type of service provided. Carrier interconnection is mandatory and interconnection fees are regulated. The Peruvian government maintains a Telecommunications Investment Fund (FITEL) to promote universal service within the country's most isolated regions, including rural areas and areas of social interest. Following the successful implementation of mobile number portability, the government requires fixed number portability be launched by July 2014."Peru - Telecom Market Trends, Key Statistics and Regulatory Overview"
Budde.com, 21 May 2014. All telecommunication services have been liberalized and are rendered under a free competition regime according to the Telecommunications Law. Under Peru's single concession regime all telecom services, including fixed-line, mobile, pay TV, and Internet, are provided under unified concessions that cover the entire country. Privatization began in 1994 when the state-owned companies Compañía Peruana de Teléfonos S.A. (CPT) and Entel Perú were auctioned to Telefónica de España. In December 1994, Entel Perú was merged into CPT. In 1995, CPT changed its name to Telefónica del Perú S.A. (TdP). Telefónica del Perú continues to dominate the market for basic telephone services."Peru - Fixed-Line Market and Infrastructure - Overview, Statistics and Forecasts"
Budde.com, 21 May 2014. The operation of broadcasting companies is governed by the Law of Radio and Television (Law Nº 28278). Spectrum is managed and controlled by the Ministry of Transport and Communications (MTC).

Radio and television

Radio stations Radio broadcasting is the broadcasting of audio signal, audio (sound), sometimes with related metadata, by radio waves to radio receivers belonging to a public audience. In terrestrial radio broadcasting the radio waves are broadcast by a lan ...

: More than 2,000 radio stations, including a substantial number of indigenous language stations (2010)."Peru"
''World Factbook'', U.S. Central Intelligence Agency. Retrieved 9 August 2014. * Radios: 24 million (2005). * TV networks: 10 major TV networks of which only one, TV Perú, is state-owned; multi-channel cable TV services are available (2010). *

Television set A television set or television receiver (more commonly called TV, TV set, television, telly, or tele) is an electronic device for viewing and hearing television broadcasts, or as a computer monitor. It combines a tuner, display, and loudspeake ...

s: 5.5 million (2003). *

Pay television Pay television, also known as subscription television, premium television or, when referring to an individual service, a premium channel, refers to Subscription business model, subscription-based television services, usually provided by multichan ...

subscribers: 2,015,805 (September 2019)."Suscriptores de TV paga por empresa"
ay TV company subscribers, Organismo Regulador de las Telecomunicaciones del Perú (OSIPTEL). *

Broadcast television system Broadcast television systems (or terrestrial television systems outside the US and Canada) are the encoding or formatting systems for the transmission and reception of terrestrial television signals. Analog television systems were standardized ...

NTSC NTSC (from National Television System Committee) is the first American standard for analog television, published and adopted in 1941. In 1961, it was assigned the designation System M. It is also known as EIA standard 170. In 1953, a second ...

, NTSC broadcasts to be abandoned by 31 December 2017, simulcasting ISDB-Tb.

Telephones

Peruvian Telephone Company receipt Lima 1895

Calling code Telephone country codes are telephone number prefixes for reaching subscribers in foreign countries or areas by international direct dialing (IDD). Country codes are defined by the International Telecommunication Union (ITU) in ITU-T standard ...

: +51. *

International call prefix International direct dialing (IDD) or international subscriber dialling (ISD) is placing an International call, international telephone call, dialed directly by a telephone subscriber, rather than by a switchboard operator, telephone operator. Sub ...

: 00 * Fixed lines: 3.4 million lines in use (2012)."Líneas telefónicas instaladas por empresa"
elephone lines installed by company, Organismo Regulador de las Telecomunicaciones del Perú (OSIPTEL). * Fixed-line teledensity: about 12 per 100 persons (2010). * Mobile subscribers: 15.2 million unique subscribers (end of 2013)."Country Overview: Peru"
, GSMA Mobile for Development Impact. * Mobile lines: 29.4 million (2012), 29.6 million (2013). * Mobile teledensity: exceeds 100 telephones per 100 persons, spurred by competition among multiple providers (2010). * Domestic system: nationwide microwave radio relay system and a domestic satellite system with 12 earth stations, which is adequate for most requirements (2010). * International communication cables: South America-1 (SAm-1) and Pan American (PAN-AM) submarine cables link to parts of Central and South America, the Caribbean, and the US (2010). * International satellite earth stations: 2

Intelsat Intelsat S.A. (formerly Intel-Sat, Intelsat) is a Luxembourgish-American multinational satellite services provider with corporate headquarters in Luxembourg and administrative headquarters in Tysons, Virginia, United States. Originally formed ...

(

Atlantic Ocean The Atlantic Ocean is the second largest of the world's five borders of the oceans, oceanic divisions, with an area of about . It covers approximately 17% of Earth#Surface, Earth's surface and about 24% of its water surface area. During the ...

) (2010). Peru's fixed-line penetration is the third lowest in

South America South America is a continent entirely in the Western Hemisphere and mostly in the Southern Hemisphere, with a considerably smaller portion in the Northern Hemisphere. It can also be described as the southern Subregion#Americas, subregion o ...

after

Bolivia Bolivia, officially the Plurinational State of Bolivia, is a landlocked country located in central South America. The country features diverse geography, including vast Amazonian plains, tropical lowlands, mountains, the Gran Chaco Province, w ...

and

Paraguay Paraguay, officially the Republic of Paraguay, is a landlocked country in South America. It is bordered by Argentina to the Argentina–Paraguay border, south and southwest, Brazil to the Brazil–Paraguay border, east and northeast, and Boli ...

. Barriers include widespread poverty, expensive services, little meaningful competition, and the geographical barriers imposed by the Andean mountains and Amazon jungles. Under the name

Movistar Movistar () is a major telecommunications provider owned by Telefónica, operating in Spain and Hispanic American countries. It is the largest provider of landline, broadband, Mobile telephony, mobile services, and pay television (Movistar Plus+ ...

, Telefónica del Perú dominates the basic telephone market.

América Móvil América Móvil, S.A.B. de C.V. is a Mexican telecommunications corporation headquartered in Mexico City, Mexico. It is the 7th largest mobile network operator in the world in terms of equity subscribers, as well as one of the largest corpor ...

’s Claro occupies second place, while Americatel Peru is third with roughly 1% of the market. The remaining companies have market shares below 0.3%. Mobile penetration is below the regional average with about one quarter of the population having no mobile phone at all, while others, primarily in urban areas, have multiple subscriptions."Peru - Mobile Market - Insights, Statistics and Forecasts"
Budde.com, 6 August 2014.

Telefónica , S.A. () is a Spanish multinational telecommunications company with registered office and headquarters located in two different places, both in Madrid, Spain. It is one of the largest telephone operators and mobile network providers in the ...

, operating as

, is the mobile leader;

, operating as Claro, is second; and Mobile Perú is third. Vietnam's Viettel is expected to begin offering mobile services in the second half of 2014 and

Virgin Mobile Virgin Mobile is a wireless communications brand used by seven independent brand-licensees worldwide. Virgin Mobile branded wireless communications services are available in Ireland, Canada, Colombia, Chile, Kuwait, Saudi Arabia, United Arab Emi ...

is expected to enter the market as a

Mobile Virtual Network Operator A mobile virtual network operator (MVNO) is a wireless communications services provider that does not own the wireless network infrastructure over which it provides services to its customers. An MVNO enters into a business agreement with a mobil ...

(MVNO).

Internet

Top-level domain A top-level domain (TLD) is one of the domain name, domains at the highest level in the hierarchical Domain Name System of the Internet after the root domain. The top-level domain names are installed in the DNS root zone, root zone of the nam ...

: .pe. *

Internet Service Provider An Internet service provider (ISP) is an organization that provides a myriad of services related to accessing, using, managing, or participating in the Internet. ISPs can be organized in various forms, such as commercial, community-owned, no ...

s (ISPs): 158 providers (2005). * Internet hosts: 234,102 hosts (2012). * Internet users: 11.3 million users, 37th in the world; 38.2% of the population, 115th in the world (2012)."Percentage of Individuals using the Internet 2000-2012"
International Telecommunication Union (Geneva), June 2013. Retrieved 22 June 2013. * Fixed broadband: 1.4 million subscriptions, 49th in the world; 4.8% of the population, 107th in the world (2012)."Fixed (wired)-broadband subscriptions per 100 inhabitants 2012"
, Dynamic Report, ITU ITC EYE,

International Telecommunication Union The International Telecommunication Union (ITU)In the other common languages of the ITU: * * is a list of specialized agencies of the United Nations, specialized agency of the United Nations responsible for many matters related to information ...

. Retrieved on 29 June 2013. * Mobile broadband: 820,295 subscriptions, 77th in the world; 2.8% of the population, 121st in the world (2012)."Active mobile-broadband subscriptions per 100 inhabitants 2012"
, Dynamic Report, ITU ITC EYE,

. Retrieved on 29 June 2013. Peru enjoyed a remarkably high

dial-up Internet Dial-up Internet access is a form of Internet access that uses the facilities of the public switched telephone network (PSTN) to establish a connection to an Internet service provider (ISP) by dialing a telephone number on a conventional telepho ...

penetration rate, but

broadband Internet In telecommunications, broadband or high speed is the wide- bandwidth data transmission that exploits signals at a wide spread of frequencies or several different simultaneous frequencies, and is used in fast Internet access. The transmission m ...

penetration is more than two-thirds below the average for Latin America and Caribbean countries. Barriers include widespread poverty, limited literacy, limited computer ownership and access, rugged topography and, perhaps most significant, a lack of meaningful competition which has made broadband Internet access in Peru one of the slowest and most expensive in the region."Peru - Broadband and Broadcasting Market - Overview, Statistics and Forecasts"
Budde.com, 21 May 2014.

Internet censorship and surveillance

In 2011 the

OpenNet Initiative The OpenNet Initiative (ONI) was a joint project whose goal was to monitor and report on internet filtering and surveillance practices by nations. Started in 2002, the project employed a number of technical means, as well as an international netwo ...

reported no evidence of Internet filtering in all areas (political, social, conflict/security, and Internet tools) for which it tests."Summarized global Internet filtering data spreadsheet"
OpenNet Initiative, 20 September 2013. Retrieved 12 November 2013. There are no government restrictions on access to the Internet or credible reports that the government monitors

e-mail Electronic mail (usually shortened to email; alternatively hyphenated e-mail) is a method of transmitting and receiving Digital media, digital messages using electronics, electronic devices over a computer network. It was conceived in the ...

or Internet

chat rooms The term chat room, or chatroom (and sometimes group chat; abbreviated as GC), is primarily used to describe any form of synchronous conferencing, occasionally even asynchronous conferencing. The term can thus mean any technology, ranging from ...

without appropriate legal authority."Peru"
''Country Reports on Human Rights Practices for 2013'', Bureau of Democracy, Human Rights, and Labor, U.S. Department of State, 11 March 2014. Retrieved 9 August 2014. Individuals and groups engage in the free expression of views via the Internet, including by e-mail. The chief impediment to Internet access is a lack of infrastructure. The constitution provides for

freedom of speech Freedom of speech is a principle that supports the freedom of an individual or a community to articulate their opinions and ideas without fear of retaliation, censorship, or legal sanction. The rights, right to freedom of expression has been r ...

and press, and the government generally respects these rights. Generally, an independent press and a functioning democratic political system combine to promote freedom of speech and press. A number of journalists and media outlets report experiencing threats or intimidation. Some observers claim that media outlets

self-censor Self-censorship is the act of censoring or classifying one's own discourse, typically out of fear or deference to the perceived preferences, sensibilities, or infallibility of others, and often without overt external pressure. Self-censorship is co ...

for fear of harassment or violence. The Press and Society Institute (IPYS) reports that the aggressors are often government officials (e.g., mayors, heads of government offices, regional presidents). The penal code criminalizes

libel Defamation is a communication that injures a third party's reputation and causes a legally redressable injury. The precise legal definition of defamation varies from country to country. It is not necessarily restricted to making assertions ...

, and officials reportedly use it to intimidate reporters. The law designates all information about national security and defense as secret. Press freedom activists and local NGOs, such as IPYS, criticized the law as an attack on transparency, freedom of information, and freedom of the press. In October 2013 the government passed a cybercrimes law designed to combat

data sharing Data sharing is the practice of making data used for scholarly research available to other investigators. Many funding agencies, institutions, and publication venues have policies regarding data sharing because transparency and openness are consid ...

and the illegal access of information. The Press and Society Institute (IPYS) and other local NGOs criticized the law as legally ambiguous and argued that it could be used broadly to target journalists and limit freedom of the press.

References

* *

External links

.pe domain registration web site

Ministry of Transport and Communications

Organismo Supervisor de Inversión Privada en Telecomunicaciones
(OSIPTEL) {{DEFAULTSORT:Telecommunications In Peru

Peru Peru, officially the Republic of Peru, is a country in western South America. It is bordered in the north by Ecuador and Colombia, in the east by Brazil, in the southeast by Bolivia, in the south by Chile, and in the south and west by the Pac ...