Access to Telecommunications in Rural or Low-income Areas
| Author(s): Juan Navas-Sabater and Arturo Muente Kunigami |
The ongoing debate about the north-south divide in the world has historically focused on socioeconomic and political factors. That conversation has broadened to include the gap in access to technology that exists between the global north and south, or the rich and poor people of the world.
Throughout the last decades, telecommunications services have contributed to economic growth worldwide. Led by massive waves of investment and technological innovation, telecommunications networks in many countries have become one of the main engines of development, and access to these services has become essential. However, there is a growing gap in terms of telecommunications infrastructure between developed and developing countries. More importantly, there is a growing gap between high income areas and low income areas within countries. These gaps, if not addressed in a timely manner, may even hinder development in low income areas, increasing inequality not only between countries but also within countries. In fact, according to a new World Bank Working Paper, Options to Increase Access to Telecommunications Services in Rural and Low‐Income Areas,despite gains made in terms of access as a result of reforms in the sector in the early 1990s, increased access has primarily been limited to urban and more densely populated areas.
“The Bank’s Information and Communications for Development 2009 report (IC4D09) found that an increase in telecommunications penetration (mobile or broadband) impacts economic growth positively,” said co-author Juan Navas-Sabater, Lead ICT Policy Specialist at the World Bank’s Global Information and Communication Technology Department. “In rural communities, it is not just about personal communication; it is also about the ability to do business and to access national and even global markets.”
The paper, a follow-up to the 2006 report, New Models for Universal Access to Telecommunications Services in Latin America, on the performance of universal service strategies across 19 countries, found that access to quality and affordable telecommunications in rural and low income areas continues to be a challenge.
Why telecommunications matters
Access to telecommunications impacts communities on many levels. Health, education, and disaster management can all suffer as a result of a lack of access to telecommunications for rural or low-income communities.
The authors suggest that it is time for governments to update their social inclusion policies to take into account the benefits of universal telecommunications access as well as the rapid development in technology which has reduced the cost of telecommunications infrastructure compared to about 15 years ago, when these policies were created.
Output-Based Aid as a possible solution for access
The paper highlights a range of policy options and funding mechanisms to address the universal access to telecommunications challenge in a rural, low-income context.
Output-based aid (OBA) is one of 12 policy options explored and assessed as potentially effective. OBA is highlighted primarily because of its performance-based approach to providing access to basic infrastructure and social services, including telecommunications, to the poor.
“An output-based approach increases accountability, improves transparency, leverages public resources in a competitive manner, and reduces economic distortions,” said Arturo Muente Kunigami, ICT Policy Specialist at the World Bank and co-author of the working paper.
The Global Partnership on Output-Based Aid (GPOBA) has piloted the OBA approach in telecommunications in Latin America and East Asia and the Pacific.
In Mongolia, GPOBA’s Universal Access pilot project provided standard telephony and wireless telephony and internet access to herder communities. GPOBA funded technical assistance to develop the pilot and provided US$5.9 million in subsidy funds to help over 22,000 people in rural, remote communities gain access to public internet and phone access points.
No one solution is perfect
The authors conclude that the list of mechanisms explored is not exhaustive and neither are the options mutually exclusive; some complement each other and could be used together. What is clear in this paper is that universal access to telecommunications offers many benefits both on an individual and a collective level that are critical for developing nations.
Download the Working Paper
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