Telecommunications

With years-long wait for telephones, and 17,000 communities with no phones at all, Brazil's telecommunications sector has fallen way behind demand. Today, however, with more liberalized policy, private investors are permitted to build propriety networks and get things turn around. Also, with government committed to selling to private interest much of the telecommunications sector, the industry, now worth $8 billion, is expected to grow to $11 billion by the end of 1998.