Country Guides
Chile
Communications
Communications
Chile
Telephone
Country code: 56. Public phone boxes are unreliable, and visitors will find it cheaper to use phones in centros de llamadas (call centres) in towns, or in Internet cafes.
Mobile Telephone
Roaming agreements exist with most international mobile phone companies. Coverage is good in built-up areas, less so outside of the towns. It is also cheap and easy to buy your own if you are in the country for any length of time.
Internet
There are Internet cafes in the main towns and tourist areas.
Post
The postal service, Correos de Chile (www.correos.cl), is reasonably reliable. Airmail to Europe and the USA takes approximately four days to a week.
Post office hours: in Santiago Mon-Fri 0830-1900; Sat 0830-1300. The central post office in Santiago is located at Plaza de Armas 559. Post offices in villages can have reduced service.
Media
Chile enjoys a reasonable level of press freedom, which is now enshrined in the constitution. There is, however, a heavy conservative tilt to the media, which has never quite redressed the imbalance of the Pinochet-era restrictions.
Press
• Spanish dailies include El Mercurio (conservative), La Tercera, conservative evening newspaper La Segunda, business newspaper El Diario, and government-run La Nación.
• Foreign newspapers are available.
• The Santiago Times (www.santiagotimes.cl) is published online in English, while the Patagonia Times (www.patagoniatimes.cl) concentrates on news in the country's south.
TV
• Although state-owned, National Television of Chile is not under direct government control.
• TV Universidad Católica de Chile (TVUC) and Universidad Católica de Valparaiso are owned by Catholic universities.
• Chilevision is owned by Sebastián Piñera, the Chilean politician and businessman widely tipped to become the next president.
• Megavisión and Red TV are private networks.
Radio
• Stations include Radio Nacional de Chile; news-based national commercial network Radio Cooperativa; commercial Pudahuel FM; Bio Bio La Radio and El Conquistador; and music-based Radio Horizonte.
• Santiago Radio (www.santiagoradio.cl) is a fledgling English-language online station.
Telephone
Country code: 56. Public phone boxes are unreliable, and visitors will find it cheaper to use phones in centros de llamadas (call centres) in towns, or in Internet cafes.
Mobile Telephone
Roaming agreements exist with most international mobile phone companies. Coverage is good in built-up areas, less so outside of the towns. It is also cheap and easy to buy your own if you are in the country for any length of time.
Internet
There are Internet cafes in the main towns and tourist areas.
Post
The postal service, Correos de Chile (www.correos.cl), is reasonably reliable. Airmail to Europe and the USA takes approximately four days to a week.
Post office hours: in Santiago Mon-Fri 0830-1900; Sat 0830-1300. The central post office in Santiago is located at Plaza de Armas 559. Post offices in villages can have reduced service.
Post office hours: in Santiago Mon-Fri 0830-1900; Sat 0830-1300. The central post office in Santiago is located at Plaza de Armas 559. Post offices in villages can have reduced service.
Media
Chile enjoys a reasonable level of press freedom, which is now enshrined in the constitution. There is, however, a heavy conservative tilt to the media, which has never quite redressed the imbalance of the Pinochet-era restrictions.
Press
• Spanish dailies include El Mercurio (conservative), La Tercera, conservative evening newspaper La Segunda, business newspaper El Diario, and government-run La Nación.
• Foreign newspapers are available.
• The Santiago Times (www.santiagotimes.cl) is published online in English, while the Patagonia Times (www.patagoniatimes.cl) concentrates on news in the country's south.
• Foreign newspapers are available.
• The Santiago Times (www.santiagotimes.cl) is published online in English, while the Patagonia Times (www.patagoniatimes.cl) concentrates on news in the country's south.
TV
• Although state-owned, National Television of Chile is not under direct government control.
• TV Universidad Católica de Chile (TVUC) and Universidad Católica de Valparaiso are owned by Catholic universities.
• Chilevision is owned by Sebastián Piñera, the Chilean politician and businessman widely tipped to become the next president.
• Megavisión and Red TV are private networks.
• TV Universidad Católica de Chile (TVUC) and Universidad Católica de Valparaiso are owned by Catholic universities.
• Chilevision is owned by Sebastián Piñera, the Chilean politician and businessman widely tipped to become the next president.
• Megavisión and Red TV are private networks.
Radio
• Stations include Radio Nacional de Chile; news-based national commercial network Radio Cooperativa; commercial Pudahuel FM; Bio Bio La Radio and El Conquistador; and music-based Radio Horizonte.
• Santiago Radio (www.santiagoradio.cl) is a fledgling English-language online station.
• Santiago Radio (www.santiagoradio.cl) is a fledgling English-language online station.
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