NICARAGUA US$16 MILLION FOR TELECOM SECTOR.

0 Comments | Caribbean Update, January, 2000

The World Bank on November 22 approved a US$15.9 million International Development Association (IDA) credit to improve the regulatory environment of Nicaragua's telecommunications sector, promote the expansion of services in rural areas on a commercially sustainable basis, and finance the upgrading of all non-Y2K compliant software in the telephone system, said Donna Dowsett-Coirolo, director of the World Bank's program in Central America:

Nicaragua's telecom system currently provides fewer than 30 telephone lines per 1,000 persons, vs. a regional average of 110 lines per 1,000. Nicaraguans often wait over two years for telephone service. Rural areas have limited access to service as distance, isolation and lower incomes have made them less attractive to the...