BUENOS AIRES, Argentina-With four operators competing nationwide, Chile boasts a wireless client base that grew 175 percent during 1999, thanks to the implementation of calling party pays. CPP also has facilitated a wireless-penetration rate that is now almost 15 percent.
When CPP was launched in February 1999, there were 800,000 total wireless users in Chile. During 1998, the client base increased 100 percent.
At that time, Minister of Transport and Communications Claudio Hohmann said: “It is probable that this new system will allow the doubling of the number of users by the end of 1999.”
Hohmann’s prediction was utterly surpassed when at the end of 1999 there were 2.2 million wireless clients. The only regional precedent for this CPP phenomenon was in Argentina, which recorded similar growth during the first year after CPP implementation in April 1997.
The players
In Chile, there are four operators. Two offer traditional cellular services (Telef
