Chile Travel Guide - Communications

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.

Roaming agreements exist with most international mobile phone companies. Coverage is good, except in remoter areas.

There are Internet cafes in the main towns and tourist areas.

The postal service, Correos de Chile (website: www.correos.cl), is reasonably reliable. Airmail to Europe and the USA takes approximately three to four days.

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.

There is freedom of speech in Chile, especially following the 2001 Press Freedom Act, which ended many of the Pinochet-era restrictions on the media.

• Spanish dailies include El Mercurio (conservative), La Tercera, conservative evening newspaper La Segunda, business newspaper El Diario, and La Nación which is government owned.
• Foreign newspapers are available.
• The Santiago Times is published in English.

• 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 Venezuela's Cisneros Group.
• Megavisión and Red TV are private networks.

• 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.