Cuba
general assessment: greater investment beginning in 1994 and
the establishment of a new Ministry of Information Technology and
Communications in 2000 has resulted in improvements in the system;
wireless service is expensive and must be paid in convertible pesos
which effectively limits mobile cellular subscribership
domestic: national fiber-optic system under development; 95% of
switches digitized by end of 2006; fixed telephone line density
remains low, at less than 10 per 100 inhabitants; domestic cellular
service expanding but remains at only about 2 per 100 persons
international: country code - 53; fiber-optic cable laid to but not
linked to US network; satellite earth station - 1 Intersputnik
(Atlantic Ocean region) (2007)
Cyprus
general assessment: excellent in both area under government
control and area administered by Turkish Cypriots
domestic: open-wire, fiber-optic cable, and microwave radio relay
international: country code - 357 (area administered by Turkish
Cypriots uses the country code of Turkey - 90); a number of
submarine cables, including the SEA-ME-WE-3, combine to provide
connectivity to Western Europe, the Middle East, and Asia;
tropospheric scatter; satellite earth stations - 8 (3 Intelsat - 1
Atlantic Ocean and 2 Indian Ocean, 2 Eutelsat, 2 Intersputnik, and 1
Arabsat)
Czech Republic
general assessment: privatization and modernization
of the Czech telecommunication system got a late start but is
advancing steadily; access to the fixed-line telephone network
expanded throughout the 1990s but the number of fixed line
connections has been dropping since then; mobile telephone usage
increased sharply beginning in the mid-1990s and the number of
cellular telephone subscriptions now greatly exceeds the population
domestic: virtually all exchanges now digital; existing copper
subscriber systems enhanced with Asymmetric Digital Subscriber Line
(ADSL) equipment to accommodate Internet and other digital signals;
trunk systems include fiber-optic cable and microwave radio relay
international: country code - 420; satellite earth stations - 6 (2
Intersputnik - Atlantic and Indian Ocean regions, 1 Intelsat, 1
Eutelsat, 1 Inmarsat, 1 Globalstar) (2007)
Denmark
general assessment: excellent telephone and telegraph
services
domestic: buried and submarine cables and microwave radio relay form
trunk network, 4 cellular mobile communications systems
international: country code - 45; a series of fiber-optic submarine
cables link Denmark with Canada, Faroe Islands, Germany, Iceland,
Netherlands, Norway, Poland, Russia, Sweden, and UK; satellite earth
stations - 18 (6 Intelsat, 10 Eutelsat, 1 Orion, 1 Inmarsat
(Blaavand-Atlantic-East)); note - the Nordic countries (Denmark,
Finland, Iceland, Norway, and Sweden) share the Danish earth station
and the Eik, Norway, station for worldwide Inmarsat access
Djibouti
general assessment: telephone facilities in the city of
Djibouti are adequate, as are the microwave radio relay connections
to outlying areas of the country
domestic: microwave radio relay network; mobile cellular coverage is
primarily limited to the area in and around Djibouti city
international: country code - 253; landing point for the SEA-ME-WE-3
optical telecommunications submarine cable with links to Asia, the
Middle East, and Europe; satellite earth stations - 2 (1 Intelsat -
Indian Ocean and 1 Arabsat); Medarabtel regional microwave radio
relay telephone network (2007)
Dominica
general assessment: NA
domestic: fully automatic network
international: country code - 1-767; landing point for the East
Caribbean Fiber Optic System (ECFS) submarine cable with links to 13
other islands in the eastern Caribbean extending from the British
Virgin Islands to Trinidad; microwave radio relay and SHF
radiotelephone links to Martinique and Guadeloupe; VHF and UHF
radiotelephone links to Saint Lucia
Dominican Republic
general assessment: relatively efficient system
based on island-wide microwave radio relay network
domestic: fixed telephone line density is about 10 per 100 persons;
multiple providers of mobile cellular service with a subscribership
of roughly 60 per 100 persons
international: country code - 1-809; landing point for the Americas
Region Caribbean Ring System (ARCOS-1) fiber-optic
telecommunications submarine cable that provides links to South and
Central America, parts of the Caribbean, and US; satellite earth
station - 1 Intelsat (Atlantic Ocean) (2007)
Ecuador
general assessment: generally elementary but being expanded
domestic: fixed-line services provided by three state-owned
enterprises; plans to transfer the state-owned operators to private
ownership have repeatedly failed; fixed-line density stands at about
13 per 100 persons; mobile cellular use has surged and has a
subscribership of nearly 75 per 100 persons
international: country code - 593; landing point for the PAN-AM
submarine telecommunications cable that provides links to the west
coast of South America, Panama, Colombia, Venezuela, and extending
onward to Aruba and the US Virgin Islands in the Caribbean;
satellite earth station - 1 Intelsat (Atlantic Ocean) (2007)
Egypt
general assessment: large system; underwent extensive
upgrading during 1990s and is reasonably modern; Telecom Egypt, the
landline monopoly, has been increasing service availability and in
2007 fixed-line density stood at 14 per 100 persons; as of 2007
there were three mobile-cellular networks and service is expanding
rapidly
domestic: principal centers at Alexandria, Cairo, Al Mansurah,
Ismailia, Suez, and Tanta are connected by coaxial cable and
microwave radio relay
international: country code - 20; landing point for both the
SEA-ME-WE-3 and SEA-ME-WE-4 submarine cable networks; linked to the
international submarine cable FLAG (Fiber-Optic Link Around the
Globe); satellite earth stations - 4 (2 Intelsat - Atlantic Ocean
and Indian Ocean, 1 Arabsat, and 1 Inmarsat); tropospheric scatter
to Sudan; microwave radio relay to Israel; a participant in
Medarabtel (2007)
El Salvador
general assessment: multiple mobile-cellular service
providers are expanding services rapidly and in 2007 mobile-cellular
density stood at nearly 90 per 100 persons; growth in fixed-line
services has slowed in the face of mobile-cellular competition
domestic: nationwide microwave radio relay system
international: country code - 503; satellite earth station - 1
Intelsat (Atlantic Ocean); connected to Central American Microwave
System (2007)