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 called IP telephony, is a method and group of technologies for the delivery of voice communications and multimedia sessions over Internet Protocol (IP) networks, such as the Internet. The terms Internet t ...

(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 Telefónica, S.A. () is a Spanish multinational telecommunications company headquartered in Madrid, Spain. It is one of the largest telephone operators and mobile network providers in the world. It provides fixed and mobile telephony, broadb ...

. 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 transmission of 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 land-based radio sta ...

: 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 A television broadcaster or television network or is a telecommunications network for distribution of television content, where a central operation provides programming to many television stations, pay television providers or, in the United St ...

: 10 major TV networks of which only one, Television Nacional de Peru, is state-owned; multi-channel cable TV services are available (2010). *

Television set A television set or television receiver, more commonly called the television, TV, TV set, telly, tele, or tube, is a device that combines a tuner, display, and loudspeakers, for the purpose of viewing and hearing television broadcasts, or using ...

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-based television services, usually provided by multichannel television providers, b ...

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:

NTSC The first American standard for analog television broadcast was developed by National Television System Committee (NTSC)National Television System Committee (1951–1953), Report and Reports of Panel No. 11, 11-A, 12–19, with Some supplement ...

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

Telephones

Peruvian Telephone Company receipt Lima 1895

Calling code Country calling codes or country dial-in codes are telephone number prefixes for reaching telephone subscribers in the networks of the member countries or regions of the International Telecommunication Union (ITU). The codes are defined by the ...

: +51. *

International call prefix An international call prefix, international dial-out code or international direct dial code (IDD code) is a trunk prefix that indicates an international phone call. In the dialling sequence, the prefix precedes the country calling code (and, fur ...

: 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, Intelsat) is a multinational satellite services provider with corporate headquarters in Luxembourg and administrative headquarters in Tysons Corner, Virginia, United States. Originally formed as I ...

(

Atlantic Ocean The Atlantic Ocean is the second-largest of the world's five oceans, with an area of about . It covers approximately 20% of Earth's surface and about 29% of its water surface area. It is known to separate the " Old World" of Africa, Europe ...

) (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 relatively small portion in the Northern Hemisphere at the northern tip of the continent. It can also be described as the sou ...

after

Bolivia , image_flag = Bandera de Bolivia (Estado).svg , flag_alt = Horizontal tricolor (red, yellow, and green from top to bottom) with the coat of arms of Bolivia in the center , flag_alt2 = 7 × 7 square p ...

and

Paraguay Paraguay (; ), officially the Republic of Paraguay ( es, República del Paraguay, links=no; gn, Tavakuairetã Paraguái, links=si), is a landlocked country in South America. It is bordered by Argentina to the south and southwest, Brazil to t ...

. 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 services, and pay television ( Movistar+) in Spain. Movistar ...

, Telefónica del Perú dominates the basic telephone market.

América Móvil América Móvil is a Mexican telecommunications corporation headquartered in Mexico City, Mexico. It is the 7th largest mobile network operator in terms of equity subscribers and one of the largest corporations in the world. América Móvil is a ...

’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 Telefónica, S.A. () is a Spanish multinational telecommunications company headquartered in Madrid, Spain. It is one of the largest telephone operators and mobile network providers in the world. It provides fixed and mobile telephony, broadba ...

, 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 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 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 root zone of the name space. For all domains in ...

: .pe. *

Internet Service Provider An Internet service provider (ISP) is an organization that provides services for accessing, using, or participating in the Internet. ISPs can be organized in various forms, such as commercial, community-owned, non-profit, or otherwise priva ...

s (ISPs): 158 providers (2005). *

Internet hosts A network host is a computer or other device connected to a computer network. A host may work as a server offering information resources, services, and applications to users or other hosts on the network. Hosts are assigned at least one network ...

: 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 is a specialized agency of the United Nations responsible for many matters related to information and communication technologies. It was established on 17 May 1865 as the International Telegraph Unio ...

. 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 tele ...

penetration rate, but

broadband Internet In telecommunications, broadband is wide bandwidth data transmission which transports multiple signals at a wide range of frequencies and Internet traffic types, that enables messages to be sent simultaneously, used in fast internet connections. ...

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. The project employed a number of technical means, as well as an international network of investigato ...

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 (email or e-mail) is a method of exchanging messages ("mail") between people using electronic devices. Email was thus conceived as the electronic (digital) version of, or counterpart to, mail, at a time when "mail" meant ...

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 right to freedom of expression has been recogni ...

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 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 the act of communicating to a third party false statements about a person, place or thing that results in damage to its reputation. It can be spoken (slander) or written (libel). It constitutes a tort or a crime. The legal defi ...

, 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 Freedom of information is freedom of a person or people to publish and consume information. Access to information is the ability for an individual to seek, receive and impart information effectively. This sometimes includes "scientific, indigen ...

, 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 , image_flag = Flag of Peru.svg , image_coat = Escudo nacional del Perú.svg , other_symbol = Great Seal of the State , other_symbol_type = National seal , national_motto = "Firm and Happy f ...