ICTs in Low Income Countries

Telecommunication Services for Rural Areas
Whereas the urban centers of many countries of South quickly develop ther telecommunication infrastructure and improve their access to the Internet rapidly , Rural areas even lack the most basic telecommunication services . Thus a growing knowledge gap separates the information rich from the information poor and eventually fosters already existing trends of polarization on the sub national level .
One reason for winding of the information Gap lies in the higher demand and higher returns on investment in the major cities which are the first to be the infrastructural
means.
Therefore, we argue that one main focus of a sustainable (telecommunication sector ) development should be the integration of the numerous rural towns and their hinterlands into a telecommunication strategy . Within this context, however, it is crucial to identify the impacts that may be induced by the utilization of telecommunication services on households, micro enterprise and institutions in rural areas .
The assessment of consumer surpluses indicate the high potential of the technologies to increase the households, and firms income . The mechanisms, however , though which these improvements of income and welfare operate are not yet clear but ought to be based on the time and space-bridging character of any form of telecommunication technology .
Adopting this rural households leads to the examination of the process of information gathering and the extends to which this process could be improved by the access to telecommunication .
This improvement could take place indirectly and directly .
As a direct effect , households in rural areas are likely to reduce transaction costs by substituting costly physical traveling on the hand and by saving times on the other hand . Further more, they might be able to expand their markets (factor markets or product markets ). This expansion would not be possible without access to telecommunication and is hence a complement to traditional information sources.

As an indirect impact, institutions that provide the backbone of information supply in rural areas could enhance their efficiency through the use of telecommunication and consult their clients more effectively .
The future chellenge is to apply the outlined framwork on households micro-enterprise
in rural areas in different developing countries . The findings of such an assessment might finally be a constructive contribution to develop a methodological framework
that estimates the economic returns on investment on telecommunication facilities in rural areas . This might eventually lead to strategies to also contact those communities that will -in the short run -not generate as high returns areas.


(SOURCE: "BOOK": Role and Potential of IT Systems and Communication Networks for International Development )