Communications in Colombia
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Telephones - main lines in use: 7,500.420 (July 2005)
Telephones - mobile cellular: 16,200.000 (July 2005)
Telephone system: modern system in many respects
domestic: nationwide microwave radio relay system; domestic satellite system with 41 earth stations; fiber-optic network linking 50 cities
international: satellite earth stations - 6 Intelsat, 1 Inmarsat; 3 fully digitalized international switching centers; 8 submarine cables
Radio broadcast stations: AM 454, FM 34, shortwave 27 (1999)
Television broadcast stations: 60 (includes seven low-power stations) (1997)
Internet Service Providers (ISPs): 13 (1999)
Colombia uses a unique system of addressing in order to combat the need for postal codes. In every city (with the notable exception of Cartagena de Indias), streets are numbered. North-south streets are called calle, while east-west streets are called carrerra. South-west to north-east streets are called diagonal, while south-east to north-west streets are called transversal. It is fair to say that calles and carrerras do not always line up in a grid pattern.
House numbers are another matter. Rather than simply numbering the houses from 1 onwards, they are numbered by the first "crossing" street, and then the number of meters away from that street the front door is. This goes on until there is another "crossing" street, at which point the houses on the next block go up in number.
As an example, a typical house number in Bogota could be: Calle 52 N° 42-18, Bogota. This would indicate that the particular house in question is on Calle 52, 18 meters in from Carrerra 42. To further the example, if the block closest to Carrerra 42 was only 100 meters long, the closest house to the next "crossing" street, Carrerra 43, could be numbered N° 43-5.
Since accuracy is the focus of the design of the addresses, numbers do not alternate on opposite sides of the street. Instead, numbers go meter-for-meter, and where one door is across from the other, a measurement can be taken, or, the neighbours can come to an agreement where one house is one "meter" behind the other. A further course of action would simply to add, "A" to the number, such as "N° 43-5A".
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