Page 7 - UniversalService

Preface

D. Marco Antonio Cruz Miranda
Chair of AHCIET

The idea of conducting a study between the three organizations (ITU,

CITEL and AHCIET) to examine the regulation of universal service emerged
as a compromise reached by the three institutions at CITEL’s Forum on
Universal Service that took place in mid-April last year in Buenos Aires,
Argentina.

I would like to underscore the importance this matter now has for our
countries, since one of the major challenges for the development of our nations is ensuring that
increasingly more people gain access to telecommunication services.

The study that we are presenting today is aimed primarily at examining the regulatory situation of
each country, confident that this will encourage the respective governments to start formulating policies
and regulating those critical aspects that are hampering the development of universal service. Its goals
and the technology used are also identified in order to maximize the benefits that these technologies
provide to extend and improve telecommunications services, as well as the guiding principles to establish,
allocate, and administer universal service programs.

Nevertheless, one of the most important challenges of our nations, once there is open market
competition, is to define the policy for financing universal service and to determine the costs of universal
service as elements facilitating access to services.

At AHCIET we will be watching this matter very closely. We are aware that the concept of
universal service is constantly evolving, and therefore the Regulation Commission of our Association will
be paying close attention to what is happening in this area.

Finally, I would like to congratulate the experts who were hired to draft the Report, Ms Graciela
Mealla, Ms. Carmen Cecilia Angarita, and Mr. Harry Noble, for their professionalism and the excellent
job they did, as well as ITU and CITEL, for working jointly with AHCIET for the benefit of the entire
telecommunications community.

D. Marco Antonio Cruz Miranda
Chair of AHCIET
December 1999

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