This research topic will examine alternative models of network financing, ownership and management, with a particular focus on local ownership of networks in rural communities. It will look at a variety of models, including microfinance, cooperatives, SMEs, municipal government ownership, public-private partnerships and scenarios in which different entities own different parts of the network (i.e. private backbone and cooperative last mile). It will also look at changing technologies that are making local ownership and management possible (especially wireless) and at policy and regulatory best (and worst) practices. More [+]
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Strategies for Promoting Broadband |
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Written by Morten Falch
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Monday, 16 October 2006 |
 A new paper is available from WDR's European Partner, the Center for Information and Communication Technologies at the Technical University of Denmark. National Strategies for Promoting Broadband Access identifies some of the major drivers and inhibitors to broadband penetration in Canada, USA, Japan and South Korea (public funding, income, geography, competition). It concludes that although technical and economic parameters such as income play a role in the development of broadband, public policy plays an important role in explaining national differences in adoption of broadband. |
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Asian Backbone Study: A general model applied to India |
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Written by Harsha Vardana Singh *
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Tuesday, 20 June 2006 |
 This new LIRNEasia research seeks to understand why adequate network backbone may not be available, or adequate access to it may not be provided. Based on this assessment, we identify policy actions that can be taken to create the conditions for adequate supply of, and reasonable access to, backbone in a country. A theoretical model is developed which is then applied to the case of India, to show the situations in which investment in backbone is commercially viable for operators. |
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Wi-Fi 'Innovation' in Indonesia |
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Written by Divakar Goswami & Onno Purbo
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Thursday, 18 May 2006 |
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 With their low-cost and quick deployment time, wireless internet technologies like Wi-Fi offer last-mile access network solutions to developing countries with limited network infrastructure. Among developing countries, Indonesia is unique for the extent that Wi-Fi that has been deployed by Internet Service Providers (ISPs) and private entrepreneurs in more than forty towns and cities across the archipelago. However, the findings from this LIRNEasia study indicate that Wi-Fi "innovations" in Indonesia are not a result of enlightened policy designed to extend communication infrastructure to unserved areas but rather a workaround solution to hostile market and regulatory conditions.
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Replicability of a Microfinance Approach to Extending Telecommunications Access |
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Written by Malathy Knight-John, Ayesha Zainudeen & Abu-Saeed Khan
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Sunday, 18 December 2005 |
 A research report prepared by LIRNEasia associates Malathy Knight-John, Ayesha Zainudeen & Abu-Saeed Khan is now available for download as a PDF file. An Investigation of the Replicability of a Microfinance Approach to Extending Telecommunications Access to Marginal Customers looks at the fundamental problem of access to telecommunications, affordability, and focuses on one of the ‘solutions’ that have emerged in response to this problem -- that adopted by Grameen of Bangladesh. The study examines the replicability of the Grameen model and concludes that the usefulness of the different elements of the model depends on the context in which an access solution is being designed for, and should be adapted accordingly. |
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Community-based Networks and Innovative Technologies |
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Written by Seán Ó Siochrú & Bruce Girard
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Thursday, 01 December 2005 |
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 The report Community-based Networks and Innovative Technologies: New models to serve and empower the poor considers how the combination of community-driven enterprises and the new wave of wireless and related technologies may have the potential to extend networks and offer new services to poor communities and to empower them to develop solutions that are more focused on their own development needs.
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Microtelcos in Latin America and the Caribbean |
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Written by Hernan Galperin & Bruce Girard
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Thursday, 01 December 2005 |
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 The problem discussed in this paper is the failure of ICT networks and services to effectively reach the poor, particularly those living in rural areas, in Latin America and the Caribbean. The conventional answer to this problem has been to create incentives and offer public subsidies for traditional operators to cover the difference between tariffs and cost-recovery levels. This paper examines a different answer, suggesting that microtelcos - small-scale telecom operators that combine local entrepreneurship, municipal efforts, and community action - can play an important role in extending ICT services in the region, particularly in areas unattractive to large private operators.
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Research project: Developing alternative networks in Ghana |
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Written by Anders Henten
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Friday, 29 April 2005 |
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Traditionally telecom services have been provided by incumbent operators. However, technological developments and structural changes in the telecom markets have given rise to different modes for the provision of communication services and alternative network that can accelerate the bridging of the digital divide and increase access to services.
These experiences in the global industry provide some fillip to the analysis of the situation in Ghana to see how alternative networks are evolving in the country providing access to communication services. |
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