Philippines
general assessment: good international radiotelephone
and submarine cable services; domestic and inter-island service
adequate
domestic: domestic satellite system with 11 earth stations
international: 9 international gateways; satellite earth stations -
3 Intelsat (1 Indian Ocean and 2 Pacific Ocean); submarine cables to
Hong Kong, Guam, Singapore, Taiwan, and Japan
Pitcairn Islands
general assessment: only party line telephone
service is available for this small, closely related community
domestic: party line service only
international: radiotelephone
Poland
general assessment: underdeveloped and outmoded system in the
process of being overhauled; partial privatization of the
state-owned telephone monopoly is underway; the long waiting list
for main line telephone service has resulted in a boom in mobile
cellular telephone use
domestic: cable, open-wire, and microwave radio relay; 3 cellular
networks; local exchanges 56.6% digital
international: satellite earth stations - 2 Intelsat, NA Eutelsat, 2
Inmarsat (Atlantic and Indian Ocean regions), and 1 Intersputnik
(Atlantic Ocean region)
Portugal
general assessment: undergoing rapid development in recent
years, Portugal's telephone system, by the end of 1998, achieved a
state-of-the-art network with broadband, high-speed capabilities and
a main line telephone density of 53%
domestic: integrated network of coaxial cables, open-wire, microwave
radio relay, and domestic satellite earth stations
international: 6 submarine cables; satellite earth stations - 3
Intelsat (2 Atlantic Ocean and 1 Indian Ocean), NA Eutelsat;
tropospheric scatter to Azores; note - an earth station for Inmarsat
(Atlantic Ocean region) is planned
Puerto Rico
general assessment: modern system, integrated with that
of the US by high-capacity submarine cable and Intelsat with
high-speed data capability
domestic: digital telephone system; cellular telephone service
international: satellite earth station - 1 Intelsat; submarine cable
to US
Qatar
general assessment: modern system centered in Doha
domestic: NA
international: tropospheric scatter to Bahrain; microwave radio
relay to Saudi Arabia and UAE; submarine cable to Bahrain and UAE;
satellite earth stations - 2 Intelsat (1 Atlantic Ocean and 1 Indian
Ocean) and 1 Arabsat
Reunion
general assessment: adequate system; principal center is
Saint-Denis
domestic: modern open-wire and microwave radio relay network
international: radiotelephone communication to Comoros, France,
Madagascar; new microwave route to Mauritius; satellite earth
station - 1 Intelsat (Indian Ocean)
Romania
general assessment: poor domestic service, but improving
domestic: 90% of telephone network is automatic; trunk network is
mostly microwave radio relay, with some fiber-optic cable; about
one-third of exchange capacity is digital; roughly 3,300 villages
have no service
international: satellite earth station - 1 Intelsat; new digital,
international, direct-dial exchanges operate in Bucharest; note -
Romania is an active participant in several international
telecommunication network projects (1999)
Russia
general assessment: the telephone system has undergone
significant changes in the 1990s; there are more than 1,000
companies licensed to offer communication services; access to
digital lines has improved, particularly in urban centers; Internet
and e-mail services are improving; Russia has made progress toward
building the telecommunications infrastructure necessary for a
market economy; however, a large demand for main line service
remains unsatisfied
domestic: cross-country digital trunk lines run from Saint
Petersburg to Khabarovsk, and from Moscow to Novorossiysk; the
telephone systems in 60 regional capitals have modern digital
infrastructures; cellular services, both analog and digital, are
available in many areas; in rural areas, the telephone services are
still outdated, inadequate, and low density
international: Russia is connected internationally by three undersea
fiber-optic cables; digital switches in several cities provide more
than 50,000 lines for international calls; satellite earth stations
provide access to Intelsat, Intersputnik, Eutelsat, Inmarsat, and
Orbita systems
Rwanda
general assessment: telephone system primarily serves
business and government
domestic: the capital, Kigali, is connected to the centers of the
prefectures by microwave radio relay and, recently, by cellular
telephone service; much of the network depends on wire and HF
radiotelephone
international: international connections employ microwave radio
relay to neighboring countries and satellite communications to more
distant countries; satellite earth stations - 1 Intelsat (Indian
Ocean) in Kigali (includes telex and telefax service)