Trends in Telecommunication Reform 2010-11 Box 3.8: School connectivity checklist: Issues to consider when developing initiatives101 Due diligence related to school connectivity plans • Ensure consistency with policies to promote overall ICT connectivity within the country. • Coordinate plans with policies, strategies, and programs for universal service, as well as broadband and digital and Information Society agendas. • Set key parameters to guide and implement the connectivity goals and targets early. • Conduct inventory of school infrastructure and existing connections to assess potential for connectivity and need for different connectivity models. • Identify potential funding sources, which may include governments, operators, multilateral or bilateral assistance and private sector sources. • Identify appropriate Internet connectivity technology or technology mix to provide an appropriate balance between available bandwidth and lower up-front and recurring costs. • Develop specific “ICT for education” plan with proper focus and detail devoted to school connectivity, with feasible and fundable targets. • Consider negotiating agreements with operators to obtain preferential prices for educational facilities. • Consider subsidized Internet access as a tool to meet universal access goals, with broadband connected schools serving as the enabling connection points. • Consider connectivity needs of special populations, such as women and girls, persons with disabilities, indigenous peoples, rural or under-served populations and others with special needs. • Consider potential of using schools with Internet points as regional “hubs” or “anchor points,” to extend broadband connectivity to other communities. Key players • Ministries/agencies responsible for education and for ICTs and ICT regulator to ensure that universal service funds/obligations are included within the plan and roles of all are fully determined. • Private sector and non-governmental organizations (NGOs) to help advance school connectivity. Regulatory issues • Consider allocating spectrum for educational broadband; reducing or waiving spectrum fees for academic institu-tions; and/or allowing use of unlicensed spectrum for broadband connectivity. • Consider including specific conditions or requirements for the education sector in network licences.Regulatory au-thorities may need to modify licence conditions to include education-focused requirements. Monitoring and Evaluation • Include methods to evaluate the technical results of Internet connectivity, measure progress towards school con-nectivity and analyze the impact of broadband access on learning. • Employ monitoring and evaluation for both new deployments and upgrades from narrowband to broadband con-nectivity. Source: ITU, Connect a School, Connect a Community Toolkit of Best Practices and Policy Advice for Connecting Schools, Module 1, www.itu.int/ITU-D/sis/Connect_a_school/Modules/Mod1.pdf is becoming essential for healthcare practi-tioners to reach patients.103 E-health involves a variety of services and tools, in-cluding electronic health records and telemedicine (see Box 3.9).102 For developing countries with high mobile penetration rates, mobile health initiatives hold particu-lar 3.4.4.1 Connectivity is key for e-health initiatives promise for providing high quality health and medi-cal services to unserved and underserved populations. Although basic voice and data connections are use-ful to improving health and medical care, broadband Considering that there are fewer than 27 million doc-tors and nurses for the more than six billion people in connectivity is necessary to realize the full potential of e-health services. For example, broadband connectivity is necessary for telemedicine that enables real-time audio and video communications between patients and the world—and only 1.2 million doctors and nurses in the lowest income countries—harnessing mobile tech-nologies 104 Chapter 3