Telefonica de Espana, Spain’s public telephone company, is losing “millions” in long-distance to United States-based “call-back services,,” which allow a caller in Spain to dial a designated number in the U.S., hang up, and, when called back, reach any long-distance number at the cheaper U.S. rate, according to Luis LaRocca, executive director of BellSouth International for Latin America.
Speaking at a meeting of the Spain-American Chamber of Commerce in Atlanta on Tuesday, March 14, Mr. LaRocca, who formerly headed BellSouth’s Spanish operations and executive director of BellSouth Europe, said that Spain’s public telephone company, as well as any other telephone companies in Europe and elsewhere, are being undersold by U.S. providers. For example, he estimated that Panama is losing $15 million a year to such services.
Spain’s telephone monopoly is in the process of being deregulated, but is not expected to be fully open to competition until sometime between 1998 and 2003, said Mr. LaRocca.