That Lima's water system was in near-crisis was not enough to bring about radical change. Partial reforms to reduce many of the city's worst problems were carried out under public management. But a quarter of Lima's citizens still had no access to water or sewerage connections, extended service...

In 1997 the U.S. Federal Communications Commission ordered sharp reductions in international settlement rates (bilaterally negotiated rates for telecom traffic between pairs of countries) for telecom traffic between the United States and the rest of the world. Even the very poorest countries,...