Universal access to the Internet: dream or reality?

In the current context of economic globalization and global trade, the industrialized countries are entering — not without a few jolts along the way — a new era that will essentially be based on information and knowledge. The question then arises as to how developing countries, given the inadequacy of their communication facilities, can gain a foothold in this environment.

The widespread dissemination of new information and communication technologies in the developing countries thus clearly emerges as an inescapable challenge in this new context.

What uses for the Internet?

While it is clear that Internet access in developing countries depends essentially on the availability of telecommunication infrastructures, it is equally clear that the Internet will not really be able to take off on a sustainable and far-reaching basis unless services and content tailored to specific local needs are well and truly offered to potential users.

Indeed, Internet use and applications in the developing countries should not be viewed as a mere transposition of what is currently taking place in the industrialized world, where the Internet is regarded essentially as a means of improving and enriching existing modes of communication. In the developing countries, on the contrary, the aim is to make good a shortage of communication media, which is why the Internet must be seen above all as a basic communication tool to be used in levering economic and social development in the regions concerned.

What stage have we reached in practice?

A number of promising signs lead us to continue our search for realistic ways in which to “bridge the digital divide”. These signs include young people’s infatuation with the Internet as a tool that is becoming accessible through the proliferation of cybercafés in developing countries (and not only in the major towns and cities); and the very obvious correspondence that exists between the community-type lifestyles that characterize the populations of developing countries and the networking possibilities offered by the Internet.

On all the continents, numerous experiments are being conducted for the purpose of reinventing a form of Internet use that is suited to local problems. In this regard, more and more local players with the necessary creativity and drive, and with an in-depth knowledge of their environment, are taking the initiative and developing innovative services, applications and specific contents. Take Senegal for example:

• the “Saint-Louis@net” platform developed by Afrique Initiatives (www.afrique-initiatives.com  and www.africa21.net) is offering useful everyday neighbourhood services.

• the “Time to Market” service developed by the company Manobi (www.manobi.net) offers small-scale professionals in the Dakar region a “virtual” marketplace accessible by means of the mobile Internet using WAP-SMS technology.

These experiments demonstrate that people are prepared to commit expenditure, regardless of their income, whenever they are offered genuinely useful neighbourhood services.

From experimentation to the establishment of communication media

When it comes to lifting the main barriers to Internet access in developing countries, a cybercafé or cybercentre-type approach based on community and collective access, as opposed to individual residential access, appears to be the most appropriate solution. The usage and investment depreciation costs are thus distributed among a large number of users who can consume as and when they wish, provided they have the necessary funds, with no commitment in terms of duration. Moreover, such collective means of access enable persons unfamiliar with Internet use to receive assistance from the cybercentre’s staff, who thereby assume the role of public letter-writer.

Finding ways to finance such projects is obviously still a key factor for success. And the first question to be asked concerns not so much the amount to be invested but, rather, the income that can be generated by the project. It is on the basis of an attractive business plan that potential investors will see their way to committing funds. Those investors could be either private parties seeking a financial return or public investors pursuing social and political development objectives, for example in the context of programmes to combat poverty. One particularly attractive approach in this connection would be to pool investments and offer different types of service on the basis of a single infrastructure, thereby achieving substantial economies of scale.

Finally, appropriate technological solutions exist and can be geared to local constraints. In order to promote Internet diffusion; rather than build a new communication infrastructure from scratch, what is required is to expand existing communication capabilities gradually in line with the increase in traffic. As far as long-distance transmission routes are concerned, the price-quality ratio offered by optical fibre-based links is the decisive factor. It is also possible to have recourse to ADSL-type technologies as a means of increasing the capacity of existing cables. For areas that are not yet covered by the telephone network or where quality is inadequate, access solutions can be matched to both usage and investment cost criteria. From this point of view, the widely tried and tested GSM technology currently stands out as the most cost-effective solution — infrastructure and terminals — owing to its widespread dissemination. In addition, when extended to data transmission using GPRS technology, it can be used to connect cybercafés in the same area with a reasonable data rate.

Conclusion

As is shown by the results of the various experiments referred to in this article, the large-scale dissemination of new communication technologies in the developing countries is no illusion! However, to achieve full success, a number of precautionary measures do need to be effectively implemented, including the adoption of a targeted approach, taking care not to succumb to the all-too-familiar temptation of hastily transposing to the developing countries solutions previously adopted in the industrialized world.