Telecommunications and Information Services for the Poor : Toward a Strategy for Universal Access
Access to information, and communications technologies has become crucial to a sustainable agenda of economic development, and poverty reduction, and yet access remains concentrated in a few regions and population groups, with the contours of this...
| Main Authors: | , , |
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| Format: | Publication |
| Language: | English en_US |
| Published: |
Washington, DC: World Bank
2013
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| Subjects: | |
| Online Access: | http://documents.worldbank.org/curated/en/2002/04/1758933/telecommunications-information-services-poor-toward-strategy-universal-access http://hdl.handle.net/10986/14007 |
| Summary: | Access to information, and
communications technologies has become crucial to a
sustainable agenda of economic development, and poverty
reduction, and yet access remains concentrated in a few
regions and population groups, with the contours of this new
"digital divide" closely following, and
supplementing existing income, and economic divides.
However, technological innovations, economic pressures, and
regulatory reforms, are making access to information, and
communications technologies more affordable, and, providing
opportunities to close the digital divide. This discussion
paper outlines a number of policy, and regulatory measures,
including incentives to attract investors to high cost, or
challenging areas, that can be used under different
scenarios, to close the digital divide. While Bank Group
experience shows an increasing number of projects with
specific universal access components, this paper proposes
alternatives for Bank Group support for universal access
policies, through an appropriate mix of technical
assistance, and investments. |
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