Taking into account the social and economic benefits of telecommunications development, universal access has gained remarkable importance in the sector's regulation. From a global perspective, the penetration of telephone lines in Colombia is quite poor; there are only seventeen lines for every one hundred people. In this thesis, access to telecommunications from a structural viewpoint is examined. According to social, economic, and historic factors, the approach to universal service in rural areas must differ from that of urban centers. While stronger government intervention is required in the Colombian countryside, the same rigid universal service regulation is not necessary in the main urban areas. This assumption is supported on two main arguments. Firstly, universal service regulation might protect self-serving interests while constraining the market from increasing the number of users. Secondly, the starting point of the rigid cross-subsidization structure is the economic capability of customers. This policy restricts greater penetration because it fails to consider people's communication interests and needs as the core objective of the telecommunications policy. Under a different approach, telecom operators might be able to accomplish successful market segmentation according to the particular needs of different regions and communities. Efficient market segmentation would acknowledge the low-income customer's potential in the market place, while at the same time encouraging innovation by operators. Thus, affordability and profitability would not oppose each other. / This thesis considers three different zones in the Colombian territory, showing that the Communications Fund's investment should be used in regions with greater levels of violence, poverty and migration. In addition, we propose that a universal access policy should be applied in order to shrink the already large gap between rich and poor people in the heterogeneous Colombian society.
| Identifer | oai:union.ndltd.org:LACETR/oai:collectionscanada.gc.ca:QMM.21693 |
| Date | January 1999 |
| Creators | Montoya Benítez, Andrés. |
| Contributors | Janda, Richard (advisor) |
| Publisher | McGill University |
| Source Sets | Library and Archives Canada ETDs Repository / Centre d'archives des thèses électroniques de Bibliothèque et Archives Canada |
| Language | English |
| Detected Language | English |
| Type | Electronic Thesis or Dissertation |
| Format | application/pdf |
| Coverage | Master of Laws (Institute of Comparative Law.) |
| Rights | All items in eScholarship@McGill are protected by copyright with all rights reserved unless otherwise indicated. |
| Relation | alephsysno: 001652537, proquestno: MQ50951, Theses scanned by UMI/ProQuest. |
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