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El Salvador Communications
Telecommunications in El Salvador, although still not highly
developed, showed significant growth from the mid-1960s to the
mid-1980s. The country had a nationwide trunk radio relay system
and was connected to a Central American microwave network. There
were about 116,000 telephones in the country in 1986, or about
2.3 phones for every 100 people. This represented a 900 percent
increase over the 13,000 phones in the country in 1964.
The National Telecommunications Administration
(Administracion Nacional de Telecomunicaciones--Antel) has owned
and operated the telephone and telegraph services since 1963. The
postal service, operating under the Ministry of Interior, carried
both domestic and international mail.
Throughout the civil conflict, the telecommunications network
was devastated by the guerrilla attacks on repeater stations and
to an earth station parabolic antenna for international satellite
communications
(see Left-Wing Extremism
, ch. 5). Telephone
function boxes reportedly were also destroyed daily. AID provided
generators to maintain telephone service during the frequent
power outages and also replaced damaged equipment.
Data as of November 1988
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