Telephone and telegraph services started in Chile in 1879, three years after Alexander Graham Bell, presented his patent for a telephonic system. José Dottin Husbands, an associate of Thomas Edison, arrived into the port of Valparaiso carrying the first set of switching equipment and telephones.[1] By 1880 the first telephone company of the country is born (Compañia Chilena de Telefonos de Edison), while in 1893, after a rapid expansion in the northern regions of Chile, telephone services started operating in the south, thanks to the founding of Telefonica del Sur (current day Grupo GTD), a company created by a group of German inmigrants that had previously settled in the area of Valdivia, Region de los Rios.
System: privatization began in 1988; advanced telecommunications infrastructure; modern system based on extensive microwave radio relay facilities; fixed-line connections have dropped in recent years as mobile-cellular usage continues to increase, reaching a level of 85 telephones per 100 persons[2]
Domestic: extensive microwave radio relay links; domestic satellite system with 3 earth stations
international: country code - 56; submarine cables provide links to the US and to Central and South America; satellite earth stations - 2 Intelsat (Atlantic Ocean) (2007)
