Like British Telecommunications Plc and US West Inc, Telefonica de Espana SA would like to become involved in the imminent privatisation of Entel, the Argentine national phone company but is sceptical about the conditions of privatisation set out in the decrees recently signed by Argentine president Carlos Menem. The government’s conditions do not guarantee a minimum monopoly period for the phone service following privatisation, and Telefonica had estimated that a concession for at least 15 to 20 years would be required to get any return on the huge investment needed to modernise the telecommunications infrastructure, but Menem’s project allows just a third of this time. The privatisation auction process began on January 8 and will run until March 21 and scepticism from large companies will possibly leave the field open to smaller companies; GTE Corp is said to be still enthusiastic. The Argentine Telephone Co manufacturing company is also to be privatised and Menem’s minister of economy is optimistic about the restructuring, expecting the World Bank to concede to credits totalling $10,600m which was granted to Argentina in 1988 but withheld due to financial turmoil within the country. He also expects a bridge loan from the US Government. However, the staff of both companies are far from happy at the proposals and have been staging strikes and demonstrations.
