A side door into the industry is rural telephony, where the state is offering subsidies for services. The Peruvian government is currently looking to connect 4,200 rural areas by the year 2000. TDP is the dominant telco in Peru and has by far the largest capitalisation on the Lima Stock Exchange. FirstCom Peru began operations in early 1999 within six months installed 800km of fibre optic cable in metropolitan Lima. At present, local industries are not protected by customs barriers, and the legal and tax system is non-discriminatory.
Some products imported from regional countries enjoy even lower tariffs.
In recent months, the government has been studying the possibility of further lowering the uniform tariff rate. Many systems offered by the large multinationals, developed for larger markets, have proven more costly than competing solutions offered by mid-range suppliers such as in Australia. The Peruvian market is very receptive to new products which offer advanced technologies at competitive prices. For the overseas visitor the Peruvian market offers the added benefit of a concentration of the major business decision makers within a a 10km radius of the Lima business district, where the Austrade office is also located. While technical managers often have a good command of sectoral vocabulary in English, some translation of conversations or promotional materials into Spanish may be necessary.