Burning up the Charts.

FORGET ABOUT THE LATEST RELEASE FROM THE ROLLING Stones or Caetano, a recent best-selling CD in Rio de Janeiro contained Brazilian government rules on telecommunication infrastructure standards.

"These are so hot," says Megan Savage, sales manager for Global Info Centre do Brasil, which has produced and sold hundreds of the CDs at US$5,000 a pop. "I can't keep up with the market, especially now, during telecom season."

Kicking off the "telecom season" was the International Telecommunications Union's Telecom Americas Conference in Rio, where competitors in Brazil gathered to announce new services and investments. Telecoms have pumped more than $40 billion into the region over the past decade. In the first couple of months of 2000. international companies alone invested about $345 million to provide Internet connections and service, according to the Brazilian Central Bank.

And it's only going to grow. Anatel, the Brazilian telecom regulations agency, estimates that the number of fixed phone lines in Brazil will double to about 58 million within five years. Wireless phone service is expected to grow even more as the competition seeded by the breakup of Telecomunicac[[tilde]{o}]es Brasileiras, or Telebr[acute{a}]s, takes root.

"Before, Anatel was using all of the Telebr[acute{a}]s standards;' Savage says. "Now the agency is forming its own. And any company that wants to do telecom here will need one of these CDs."