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Telecom Argentina is the major local telephone company for the northern part of Argentina, including the whole of the city of Buenos Aires. Briefly known as Sociedad Licenciataria Norte S.A., it quickly changed its name, and is usually known as simply Telecom within Argentina. Telecom Argentina's local telephone market, together with Telefónica de Argentina in the southern part of the country, was part of a duopoly until October 8, 1999. Telecom also operates mobile phone service ''Personal'' and Internet service provider ''Arnet''. ==History== In 1990, Argentina started to privatize most of its state-owned utilities: power, water, trains, and telecommunications, just to name a few. The monopoly of state-owned phone service ENTel was split into two territories: France Télécom was given the "upper half" of the country, from the middle to the north, and Telefónica was given the southern part. Each company was given an initial 7 year monopoly beginning on November 8, 1990. Initially, other companies were given exclusive licenses for international long distance, as well as cellular phone service. Its Puerto Madero headquarters were designed by the American architectural studio of Kohn Pedersen Fox, and inaugurated on February 18, 1998. Both local phone companies turned their systems into profitable operations in just a few years, despite the terrible conditions they inherited from ENTel. In the worst years of ENTel, a line activation would take several years. The telephone wiring layout across the country was undocumented. At privatization in 1990, the wait was still 4 years to get new service and 40 days for repair.〔http://www.telecom.com.ar/inversionistas/english/sotearc.html (now gone; accessed in 2006)〕 Starting off with severe downsizings, Telecom Argentina started to invest into the country, but there was little outside capital investment; rather, a small portion of earnings were reinvested. Years later, all of the phone network was upgraded to a state-of-the-art system, from central telephone exchanges up to the wires going into homes; by 2005, 98% of the ENTel network infrastructure had been replaced. Unlike many other privatized companies, Telecom got an inefficient company and turned it into a working, profitable company. In contrast, the train lines (which cost the state roughly US$1,000,000 ''per day'' in losses to operate 30,000 km of railroads), were sold to private corporations, it still cost the state US$1,000,000 per day in subsidies to operate 1,400 km of railroads. In 2005, the Bank of New York was appointed as trustee, registrar and paying and transfer agent for Telecom Argentina's $1.5 billion debt restructuring, the biggest Argentine debt restructuring to date. The restructure involved the exchange of $2.8 billion in outstanding debt for newly issued exchange notes and cash, and involved consent requests and instructions for over 1100 creditors. 抄文引用元・出典: フリー百科事典『 ウィキペディア（Wikipedia）』 ■ウィキペディアで「Telecom Argentina」の詳細全文を読む スポンサード リンク
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