Telefonica de Espana SA subsidiary Telefonica del Peru SA plans to expand the amount it will spend this year on cable television and cellular telephone services to $66.3m and $48m respectively, raising its 1996 investment programme to $692.8m. Last year, Telefonica was projected to have spent close to $800m. It has promised to install 1.9m new phone lines by 1998; Peru has just six lines per 100 residents, far below the roughly 55 lines per 100 inhabitants in the US. It announced plans to install 362,000 new lines and extend service to 280 communities in 1996, and improve overseas service with a new Lima central and complete the Peru’s coastal fiber-optic network. The state plans to sell off its remaining 28.6% stake in Telefonica on local and world markets later this year. Analysts say the state-held shares are currently valued at about $1,500m.
