International Business / The Pacific

Phone Service in Latin America Expands Rapidly: The number of Latin American and Caribbean telephone lines has surged more than 50% since 1990, a U.N. study said. Companies installed more lines in the region as economies expanded and countries sold stakes in state-owned telephone companies, according to the International Telecommunication Union, a Geneva-based U.N. agency. The number of lines is expected to rise “at a healthy 15% a year over the next five years,” the agency said. Latin America had more than 42 million phone lines by 1995, up from about 27 million in 1990. The fastest expansion took place in Guyana, Jamaica and El Salvador, the ITU said.