[governance] Article on Mashable on the Web and developing countries

Sat Feb 5 01:56:11 EST 2011

This is an interesting piece.

*A Pacific Perspective*
 Universal Service and Access is still a challenge in the Pacific region as
its islands are spread out across the sea, and volcanic islands have vastly
different terrain.

Mobile phones have increased the regional penetration rates in the Pacific,
Samoa, PNG, Fiji etc. One of the challenges with the deployment of
communication services is the availability of reliable energy grids. Sadly,
alternative and renewable energy alternatives are quite expensive in the
Pacific and many Pacific Islands telecommunications providers and ISPs rely
on infrastructure that is powered either by their national energy grids or
petroleum (diesel).

In terms of voice, yes, mobiles have accelerated communication and
penetration in remote areas but there is quite a long way to go to enable
the availability of internet access outside cities and towns. Sadly, in the
Pacific, internet is not readily available on the internet except in
suburban areas.

One of the increasing challenges for governments is in having proper
national strategies in place that will enable greater cohesion that is
critical for the state, regulators, licensed operators and civil society
that will ensure that universal service is reached.

Whilst internet on mobile phones is not readily available yet in villages,
sms banking is a popular feature that has really taken off in Fiji recently.
So, I suppose yes mobiles are the way to go but I would not write off
Telecenters in every village, at least.

Different countries in the Pacific define Universal Service/Access
mediums differently, some say Fixed Lines and Mobile Phones whilst some have
both including the Internet, which is why Facebook can never be a human
right in developing worlds until they have basic access to communication,
priority being voice over internet, at the very least.

The Pacific still has alot to do to bring up countries' respective national
penetration rates in all mediums of communication.

Kind Regards
Sala

On Sat, Feb 5, 2011 at 7:16 PM, catherine <ecrire at catherine-roy.net> wrote:

> FYI:
>
> Why the Web Is Useless in Developing Countries – And How to Fix It
>
> Like many who study the struggles of developing countries, Steve Bratt has
> done the math on the potential of mobile phones. The United Nation’s
> International Telecommunication Union estimated that at the end of 2010
> there were 5.3 billion mobile phone subscriptions worldwide and that a
> full 90% of the world population now has access to a mobile network. In
> contrast, only about 2 billion people have Internet access.
>
> The high prevalence of mobile phones (even in developing countries,
> penetration rates were expected to reach 68% by the end of 2010) has led
> many non-profits to choose mobile networks as tools for positive change.
> Mobile banking in Kenya has helped farmers increase their incomes, 300,000
> people in Bangladesh signed up to learn English through their phones, and
> many consider mobile phones the key to developing nations.
>
> But Bratt, now the CEO of The World Wide Web Foundation, came up with a
> different hypothesis when he looked at the 3.3 billion-person gap between
> mobile phone users and Internet users. Theoretically, he thinks that the
> two numbers could one day even out as people use their phones to log onto
> the Internet.
>
> Read more:
>
> http://mashable.com/2011/02/04/web-developing-world
>
>
> --
> Catherine Roy
> http://www.catherine-roy.net
>
>
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