The rationale for shared access

Since 1998, the International Telecommunication Union has been developing multipurpose community telecentre (MCT) projects to bring telephone, fax, Internet, e-mail and, in some cases, distance learning and telemedicine to remote villages around the world. Timbuktu (Mali), with its legendary past, is home to the first major multipurpose community telecentre in Africa. Located East of Lake Faguibine and near the Niger River, Timbuktu remains an important trade centre on the Saharan camel caravan routes. But like most isolated areas, the once prosperous commercial and cultural town needs a helping hand to join the digital economy (see story on Timbuktu Mali) and participate in an increasingly knowledge-based society.

Today, the digital divide has assumed an aura of inevitability, primarily because the spread of information and communication technologies (ICT) has built its web around the “individual” — individual access, individual literacy, individual computer literacy, an individual’s ability to operate in the lingua franca of information technology (mainly English, but also other Roman script-based languages), and individual paying capacity.

Developing societies need an ICT model that provides access without necessarily requiring all or most of those capacities associated with the individual. As long as the crucial mix of capacities exist as social capital that people can easily draw upon to fulfil their basic need for communication — a need that can be met cheaply, reliably, efficiently, and which has come to mean digitally — the goal of bridging the digital divide can become a reality. The deployment of community telecentres in developing countries constitutes a promising way to narrow the digital divide and to improve the quality of life of men and women particularly in low-income rural and under-served areas.

Multipurpose community telecentres, for example, make it possible for people of a village — particularly the younger generation — to learn how to use computers and the Internet. Students and teachers can run educational software on personal computers in telecentres or obtain access to world leading online libraries and distance instructors through the Internet. Local administrators and society leaders can access information on basic social services such as water supply or infrastructure. Farmers can form joint buying and selling groups and monitor market prices. Small entrepreneurs can find larger markets, conclude deals and use the telecentre for normal office services such as fax, e-mail or document production.

Facilities providing access to ICTs, and the applications they support, vary considerably. In their simplest form, they may be limited to providing public telephone and fax services and be run, for example, by a local shopkeeper. Telecentres of this type, sometimes referred to as “telekiosks”, tend to be located in more densely populated areas and have an important social and economic role.

At the other end of the scale are telecentres with (shared) offices open to small local businesses and “teleworkers”, which are equipped with computers, printers and photocopiers. Centres of this type generally provide access to data networks (e.g. Internet) for e-mail and file transfer, to electronic libraries and databases, government and community information systems, market and price information databases, environmental monitoring systems and so on. They may also offer facilities and equipment for distance learning and telemedicine, and some may provide the facilities, equipment and training needed to produce (and receive) local radio and television programmes.

Many MCTs receive direct or indirect financial support from public authorities, nationally or locally, to cover part of their costs. As an example of indirect financial support, many MCTs sell training courses to the local educational authorities. Often, the centres are located in schools, libraries, local authority buildings or houses that are converted for this purpose and normally have an office and a public area with access to ICT-based services. MCT staffing typically consists of a full-time manager and a part-time assistant. Many MCTs have also made use of volunteers successfully.

The prime purpose of MCT pilot projects is to develop and test models for provision of access to modern information and communication technologies. It is also to develop and test sustainable new services for use by the general public, development organizations and enterprises in remote and rural areas, at affordable cost. Integral to the pilot projects is the objective of developing and testing applications for education, agriculture, health, small and medium-sized enterprises and government and community information services.

Typically, MCTs are a collaborative effort of multilateral agencies and national partners, including non-governmental organizations, who pool expertise in different areas to serve communities. The expertise could range from basic health to small-scale industry. The focus is on the development and adaptation to the local context of applications and “content” relevant to their field of activity, and in the training of support staff and end users.

The ITU Telecommunication Development Bureau (BDT) is implementing MCTs in partnership with local authorities, companies and communities, as well as the United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization (UNESCO), the United Nations Development Programme (UNDP), the United Nations High Commission for Refugees (UNHCR), the World Health Organization (WHO), the Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations (FAO), the Canadian International Development Research Centre (IDRC) through its Acacia programme, the Swedish International Development Agency (SIDA), the Canadian International Development Agency (CIDA) and the British Council. MCT pilot projects are being deployed in Benin, Bhutan, Bolivia, Burkina Faso, Cape Verde, Honduras, India, Malawi, Mali, Nepal, Suriname, United Republic of Tanzania, Uganda and Viet Nam.

In Latin America, the MCT pilot projects at Valle de Angeles and Santa Lucía in Honduras offer a good example of appropriate technologies and institutional arrangements at work. The Valle de Angeles MCT recently became a rural Internet service provider. Both the Santa Lucía and Valle de Angeles MCTs link five mini-MCTs each with narrow-band packet radio and spread spectrum technologies. The low cost, low maintenance mini-telecentres are located in the neighbouring villages. A mini-MCT is made up of four personal computers, one printer working as a local area network and telecommunications equipment.

Two micro-MCTs in Montaña Grande and Las Trojas are powered by solar energy and operated by the community and HONDUTEL, the local telecommunication company. There are plans to upgrade both centres to MCTs (five personal computers, printer and wider band channel) so that they can provide distance-learning services. Internet service provision, in particular, has become a key revenue source and helps cover costs of the MCTs while keeping the operating costs of mini-centres at affordable levels. This expansion is to be sponsored by the World Bank, the Organization of American States and the Honduras Ministry of Science and Technology.

In Asia, Bhutan Telecom established a telecentre at Jakar in central Bhutan with ITU assistance in 1998. The telecentre has been particularly successful in providing basic information technology training to over 450 people. As part of the next phase of operations, UNESCO is assisting Bhutan to convert the Jakar telecentre into a community multimedia centre in which access to the Internet and the broadcasting programme production are integrated to maximize the information services accessible to the local community. The media production centre will take advantage of telecommunication facilities available at the MCT to deliver locally produced content for daily radio and television broadcast offered by the Bhutan Broadcasting Service (BBS). Combining the media production centre and the MCT would enable BBS to offer more participatory programmes, besides using content based on the regular field visits conducted in central Bhutan. The media production centre is expected to eventually introduce local broadcasts through its own transmitter. Such broadcasts would include regular “Radio Browsing” programmes to promote rural access to the Internet through the Jakar MCT.

Another pilot project in Tanzania addresses the needs of the refugee community, relief workers and the local community. The project is implemented in collaboration with the Tanzanian government, UNESCO, UNHCR, WorldSpace Corporation and VITASAT. According to the business plan, telecentres will be sustainable enterprises. The project responds to an ITU resolution titled “Training of refugees”, adopted at the Kyoto Plenipotentiary Conference in 1994. Resolution 37 calls on ITU to continue its efforts towards the application of the United Nations resolutions relevant to assistance to refugees. ITU is also to collaborate fully with the organizations concerned with the training of refugees, both within and outside the United Nations system. Furthermore, the resolution invites ITU Members “to do even more to receive certain selected refugees and to arrange for their training in telecommunications in professional centres and schools”. The project comprises a network of three telecentres:

• the first telecentre is located in the district headquarters town of Ngara, which houses the local administration as well as UNHCR and UNICEF offices;
• the second is at “K9”, about 17 kilometres from Ngara, where seven relief organizations and a secondary school for girls are based;
• the third is some 8 kilometres from K9 where two refugee camps are located: Lukole A and B, which currently have no telecommunication facilities.

VITA will provide satellite support and information services through its VITA-Connect network, including the contribution of a ground station, antenna, and software for basic electronic mail-based connectivity. WorldSpace Corporation has committed to providing, at each site, a container incorporating radio equipment, satellite receiver and data terminal to download Web-based multimedia educational and entertainment content in Kiswahili (the local language). The centre, planned as an educational centre for refugee children and for teacher training, will also provide medical information and will be run by refugees.

Projects currently in an advanced stage of planning include: in Niger, establishment of four telecentres around the capital Niamey, to be run by women’s cooperatives and in the Democratic Peoples Republic of Korea establishing a telecentre in Hyangsan County.

All MCT pilot projects are subject to continuous assessment by the partners involved in their implementation. Current assessments point to the fact that the projects have considerable social impact. Read on!