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ITU
Telecom World 2003
October
6, 2003
Telecom reforms to accelerate universal
access
Air
Commodore (Retd.), Narinder K. Chhibber
This
is an abstract of the paper on, 'Telecommunication reforms
to accelerate universal access in south Asian developing
countries' that will be included in session POL 3, scheduled
on 14 October 2003, at ITU TELECOM WORLD, 2003, GENEVA.
NEW
DELHI -- South Asia, with a population of 1.4 billion
people, has very low telephony penetration as compared
to most other regions of the world. During the last
decade, the South Asian countries have witnessed change
from traditional, single, government-owned operator
to multi-operators through liberalisation and privatisation
with statutory regulatory authorities. Consequent of
these changes, teledensity has grown at rapid pace in
cities, but the rollout of networks in rural areas still
remain a cause of concern. There has been a general
reluctance among new entrants to meet their rollout
obligation in rural areas, where two thirds of the population
lives, and about 15 percent of the villages are still
without any telephony service.
The
emergence of new technologies and the growing demand
for Internet has resulted in development of new applications
such as e-governance, e-transactions, e-learning, and
e-health. Broadband is another economic catalyst, but
bringing the technologies as are used in industrialised
countries may not work here. Lower bandwidth than the
bandwidths in use in developed countries, may meet the
needs of broadband services in villages in developing
countries to bring down the network cost. Access through
a personal telephone with Internet connection is a distant
dream for most of the villagers due to the lack of purchasing
power. Thus, public access through village public telephones
with multi-purpose services has been adopted in all
countries of the region. However, these public tele-info
centres can be successful only if masses find them useful,
convenient with good quality of service and affordable
rates are charged from the users.
Like
all over the world, the unprecedented surge is towards
mobile communications in these countries. GSM mobile
and CDMA networks for wireless local loop (WLL) have
come up in a big way in urban areas. Competition and
falling revenues are likely to force these operators
to extend cellular networks to rural areas.
India,
the largest country in the region with a population
over one billion, has achieved comparatively better
telecom services growth in south Asia.
However, the real challenge lies in rural communication,
where the teledensity is about 1.24 percent and the
government has set a target of four percent by the year
2005. While on one side the challenge is high cost per
line due to widespread area and difficult terrain, the
other
challenge is low demand due to poor affordability, resulting
in lower revenue and lack of value addition, e.g., mobility,
e-governance, availability and relevant information
in local languages. Sri Lanka is another
country that has achieved comparatively better results
in the region, but is yet far away from the world average
of rural teledensity.
A
number of independent projects are going on in some
of the states of these countries to provide e-governance
and other benefits of ICTs, through dedicated networks.
Some of these projects, namely Gramdoot, corDect WLL
model, IP/VSAT-based WAN networks, community information
center projects have been implemented in states. These
are limited only to small parts of the states and its
full-fledged implementation and economic viability are
yet to be proved.
The
need is of a co-ordinated effort by the central governments
of the countries with the full involvement of the telecom
industry, the state governments/local administration,
and the education and medical services sectors. Like
most countries of the world, development of ICT infrastructure
for rural and remote areas of these countries is planned
through establishment of a universal service obligation
(USO) fund or some form of subsidy.
To accelerate universal access and to bring awareness
to the masses of the advantages of ICTs, the implementation
process needs new strategies and innovative approach.
International agencies like ITU can contribute toward
this end.
ICTs
for the masses can become useful, only if people are
able to get information they need for improving the
knowledge and efficiency of their professions and are
provided online citizen services, utilities bill payment
facility and official correspondence with the government,
admissions to hospitals, educational institutes, etc.
Once people become familiar in the use of ICTs and its
advantages, its use will keep on increasing among the
masses.
Literacy
is another factor that influences the use of ICT. In
South Asian countries, around 35 percent people are
illiterate and women illiteracy is as high as 50 percent.
Even out of literate people only 10 percent people are
fluent in English. Some work is going on development
of application programs and content in local languages,
but with as many as 16 different main languages in use,
the progress is slow due to the enormous effort required.
In fact, ICT can help in improving literacy for the
adult illiterates and in improving the quality of teaching
in schools located in remote rural areas.
(The
author is Secretary General, PTC India Foundation)
Contact:
PTC India Foundation
ptcif@vsnl.com
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