[WSIS CS-Plenary] The Economist on the 'real digital divide'

[Milton Mueller]

Rik:

>>> rikp at earthlink.net 3/14/2005 2:42:56 PM >>>
>On the other hand, I must say that in the remote fishing village in
the 
>Philippines that my family is from, we barely have potable water, 
>regular electricity, much less a telecentre.  But lots of folks have 
>mobile phones.  Cell phones are the only ICTs that are realistic for 
>our village to access given our significant infrastructure needs.  I 

And I must point out that it was the introduction of competition in the
Philippines in 1993-95 that made this possible. The government there did
a reasonably good job of tying market entry to infrastructure build-out
requirements, drastically improving the distribution of infrastructure
between urban and rural areas. For a good summary from an academic at U.
of the Philippines, see
http://www2.eastwestcenter.org/seminars/APCET/Patalinghug.ppt