Telecommunication Infrastructure,

Regulation and Liberalization

Overview:

The Dominican Republic is one of the leaders in telecommunications within the Carribean. However, the internet is another story within the country, as usage and access are both significantly weak.

Highlights:

The Dominican Republic liberalized its telecommunications market to allow competitors in 1992, however, the General Telecommunications Law was not updated until 1998. The Law regulates the entire industry and applies to the transmission and reception of words, sounds images and information. The telecommunications services in the Dominican Republic are overseen by INDOTEL, a government agency. INDOTEL is responsible for standards, supervision and developing national and international policies. This is discussed in more detail in the National ICT Policies section.

The Dominican Republic is a member of the International Telecommunications Union (ITU). The local law considers the applications of the ITU's recommendations and establishes the norms to which the Dominican Republic must follow.

The Dominican Republic has the most sophisticated telecommunication system in the Caribbean . Telecommunication generates over 10% of the GDP versus just 5.8% in 2000. Growth is even larger in the cellular sub-sector, and Internet growth has continued at 15% per year in the past 6 years. The country has an efficient domestic telephone system based on microwaves radio relay networks and fiber optic lines. From an international standpoint, there is 1 coaxial submarine cable, and 1 satellite earth station (1 Intelsat). There are 944,334 main telephone lines in use (100 per 1,000 people). Approximately ½ of the population of the Dominican Republic utilizes cellular telephones, with 4,558,351 in use throughout the country (500 per 1,000 people).

25 television broadcast stations are available, while there are 120 AM radio station, 56 FM stations and 4 shortwave stations. 4 companies exist, namely Verizon, Tricom , France Telecom and Centennial Communications that provide local, long distance, cellular and ISP services. Although the market is competitive and there are 4 major players, Verizon dominates the market. For example, they account for 84% of all installed lines. Prior to liberalization, only one company dominated the industry and users were limited due to the extremely high cost.

The Internet was launched in 1994, and although there is still huge growth, only the major cities use the Internet. E-commerce is minimal, and rarely occurs in both the business-to-client and business-to-business sectors.

There are only 183,876 internet accounts in use, which is less than 2% of the population, and only 20 accounts per 1,000 people. However, there are 938,300 internet users, accounting for 100 out of every 1,000 people, which means that approximately 5 people share every internet account.

Costs for internet access are high, and range from $33 per month up to $111 per month, based on speed. Service is considered only “decent”, and although cable internet is offered at a slightly lower price, service is deficient and unreliable. Considering that the Dominican Republic has one of the best telecommunications infrastructures in Latin American, the internet is their biggest weakness. (3) (4) (5)