Toward Universal Access: Strategies to Bridge the Digital Divide in Nepal

1. Toward Universal Access:Strategies to Bridge the Digital Dividein Nepal Professor Heather E. Hudson Director Communications Technology Management Program University of San Francisco

2. “L’information est la clé de toutes les portes…”(Information is the key to all doors)…woman using a telecentre in Timbuktu, Mali

3. Information: Key to Development • “Information is the fuel of medicine. Here we have none. Year by year we are falling behind.”Physician in Timbuktu • “We have a saying: When the telephone rings, business is coming.” Rural co-operative manager in China • “We need information – masses of it. Without it, our culture will die.” Inuit leader, Nunavut

4. The Information Connection:Benefits of ICTs • Efficiency: Saving time and money • Logistics for transport and tourism • Ordering spare parts • Arranging clinic visits • Getting perishable crops to customers • Effectiveness:Improving quality of services • Education: • Timbuktu: an up-to-date map of Africa • South Pacific and West Indies: university extension tutorials • Northern Canada: help village students finish high school • Health Care: • Consultation between village health workers and physicians • Training for health workers • Access to specialized expertise • Equity: Bridging Digital Divides • Urban and rural; rich and poor; minorities; disabled

5. ICTs: Creating New Business Opportunities • New markets, new audiences, new sources of supplies • Using websites to sell crafts, carvings, weaving • Getting price information: • Uganda: price of coffee in Kampala for 1 text message • Getting competitive bids • Northern Canada fur co-operatives • Outsourcing/Insourcing • Doing work for distant client • Call centres, data entry, translation • Delivering social services • Health, education services to remote areas • Funds transfer • Remittances from overseas via mobile phone • Micro finance • Connecting lenders with microbusinesses

6. What makes ICTs accessible? Criteria for access to ICT facilities and services: • Availability • Affordability • Sufficient bandwidth • Sufficient quality • There are many metrics for countries as a whole • Nepal needs to determine what metrics and targets it should use • Need local as well as national targets: • Access for low income groups • Access for urban, rural, and remote regions

7. ICTs: Necessary but Not Sufficient • Context: Social, economic, cultural • Need other infrastructure: transportation, power supply, etc. • Other services: local banking, funds transfer • Opportunities: “If I learn to use a computer, will I be able to find a job?” • Content • Local languages • Relevance • Capacity • Skills to use and manage information facilities • Infomediaries: the information broker • Uganda: • “My father sent many telegrams in his life. My father couldn’t read or write.” • Ecuador: • Farmers get help to find a way to save the potato crop • Northern Canada • Chiefs track down government officials who have promised support to their communities

8. Implications of Technological Trends • Distance is no longer a barrier • Price of devices and services is coming down • Competition is possible • even in rural or isolated regions • Leapfrogging • Directly to wireless and IP-based services • Combining old and new media • Radio and Podcasts • Video and YouTube • Mobile phones with video, PDAs, MP3s, …

9. Community Access to the Internet: Telecentres, Kiosks, Internet Cafes

10. Call Centre in Bhutan: (Using VOIP over leased fiber circuit from Paro to India)

11. Call Centre in Bhutan

12. Good News and Bad News: ICT Access in Developing Countries • Good news: access to voice services has improved dramatically • Primarily mobile (wireless) • But bandwidth very limited: typically GSM • Bad news: Internet access limited and expensive • Broadband largely unavailable in most developing countries • Implications: • Limited connnectivity, high prices • Underutilization of international capacity where available

13. ITU’s DAI consists of several factors: • Infrastructure • Affordability • Quality of ICT services • Education levels of population • Internet usage • ← Nepal ranks • very low on the DAI

14. Mobile Access:Nepal is low even compared to Least Developed Countries, but Growth Rate (CAGR) is high ITU Data for 2007

15. Latest ITU data (2007): ←Nepal has 4.2 mobile subscribers per 100 inhabitants; 65% of all telephone subscribers are mobile subscribers So major growth in mobile, but access is still very low

16. ←Latest ITU Data (2007): Nepal has 0.24 Internet subscribers per 100 population; ITU estimates 1.20 Internet users per 100 population Among 10 lowest in Asia

17. Nepal’s access to the Internet is extremely low (at any speed). Access to broadband is negligible. ITU Data 2007

18. ←Nepal ranks very low in international bandwidth availability

19. Many developed Asian countries have more than 1000 times the international bandwidth per capita available in Nepal

20. Mobile Sector Structure:Low and Lower Middle Income Countries Most developing countries now have competition in mobile Result is higher growth (see next slide)

21. Mobile subscribers vs.GDP per capita:Mobile sector structure: Competitive Monopoly

22. Lessons from the Wireless Explosion • Competition is key • Lower prices • Innovative strategies: e.g. prepaid, microloans, special services • Demand may be much greater than assumed • Farther down the economic pyramid • Old Distinctions no longer Relevant • Fixed vs. mobile: • Cellphones as first and only phones • Portable public phones: e.g. Bangladesh, Philippines, Uganda • Wireless public phones: e.g. South Africa, Uganda • What is E-mail? • SMS (short message service): Poor person’s (everyone’s?) e-mail? • Voice vs. data • What is voice? • (Some countries still have monopolies on fixed “voice”) • Bits are bits • VoIP Telephony

23. Strategies to Increase Internet Access: • Community access models • Payphones (PCOs), telecentres • Resale • Phone shops, Internet cafes • Legalizing Bypass to PSTN • VSAT networks direct to end users • Businesses, schools, telecentres, etc. • Wireless for local access • E.g. WiFi (802.11) for local access • “hot spots” to cover villages, neighborhoods • Other WLL options: WiMax, CDMA 450, etc. • IP Telephony (VOIP) • Inexpensive voice-over-data networks • Reducing local barriers • Customs duties • Local fees and taxes

24. Satellite Facilities Case Study: Telemedicine and Broadband in Alaska

25. Alaska: Like Nepal, with Mountainous Terrain, Isolated Villages • Huge land area: 1.7 sq. km. with small population • Only 4 communities over 10,000 • More than 200 villages • Few roads: many villages are accessible only by boat or bush plane • About 16 percent of population is indigenous • Shortage of professionals • teachers, physicians • Distance from specialized expertise • medical specialists • teachers of specialized and advanced subjects

26. From “Bush Telegraph” to the Internet in Alaska • Early days: communication by HF radio • BUT for more than 20 years, Alaskan villages have had reliable communications by satellite • 95 % of households have telephones • Broadband Internet access to almost all schools and libraries • WiFi now covers many villages for Internet access from homes, businesses and community centres

27. Telemedicine in Alaska Today:The AFHCAN Project • Alaska Federal Health Care Access Network (AFHCAN) • Telemedicine for all federally funded health care facilities in Alaska • 235 sites; 37 member organizations • Village clinics • Public Health clinics • Regional hospitals • Military installations, Coast Guard, Veterans Administration • Covers more than 212,000 beneficiaries • About 40% of Alaska population • Majority are in Alaska native villages

28. Telemedicine facilities for consultation between Alaskan regional hospital and village clinics...

29. AFHCAN Telemedicine Facilities and Users Voice communication from the village: Still the most important Reading digital x-rays from regional hospitals Health aides can send digital photos as email attachments from village clinics Electronic otoscope: to examine village children’s ear infections

30. Training and Technical Supportfor Alaskan Health Aides

31. Alaskan children access the Internet in village schools.

32. How did Alaskan Villages get Broadband? • New federal policy on Universal Service after 1996 • From basic telephony to “advanced services” • Used community access model for Internet access • Discounted Internet access for schools, libraries, rural health facilities • Subsidy goes to the school (or library) • Not directly to the provider • Schools post requirements on website for competitive bids • Service may be provided by any telecom provider, including satellite, wireless as well as local telco • Includes funding for LANs in the schools • Goal: Access to the classroom, not just the schoolhouse door or the principal’s office • Now: wireless extension from schools to cover villages

33. Lessons from Alaska for Telemedicine:Design for Success • Know the needs of your users (those who will use the system) and customers (those who will pay for the system) • Plan for staff turnover: keep it simple • Expect growth and change: make it scalable • Design for sustainability • Strategies to continue past the pilot stage • Document and evaluate • Learn from the users • Use feedback from evaluation to improve the project

34. Lessons and Strategies to Increase ICT Access… • Separate the goals from the means • access goals, not technology solutions • E.g. don’t focus on wire or wireless technology but on cost-effective solutions • Use incentives to accelerate investment in rural communications • Involve users in planning • Community groups, NGOs, SMEs, etc. • Include training • technical and business skills • SMEs, NGOs, disadvantaged, etc. • Start with “thirsty horses” • Prioritize based on interest, commitment, rather than only political level or population

35. Use Targeted Subsidies where Needed • High cost areas • Rural, remote, mountainous, islands • Specific user groups • Schools, libraries, health centers, etc. • Subsidies for users, not carriers/operators • Incentive-based subsidies: • Universal Service Funds (USF) • Reverse auctions for franchise territory • Integrated economic development funding • To support tourism, access to global markets, opportunities for call centers, etc.

36. Summary: Strategies to Increase Connectivity in Nepal • Foster competition: • Restructure fixed networks to eliminate monopolies • Reduce entry barriers • Eliminate restrictions on competitive services: e.g. satellite, VOIP • Use targeted subsidies to encourage investment in broadband for anchor tenants such as schools, health centers, businesses, NGOs, etc.

37. Technology is the Easy Part... "We have now reached the stage when virtually anything we want to do in the field of communications is possible. The constraints are no longer technical, but economic, legal, or political."-- Arthur C. Clarke (World Telecom Day, 1983!)

38. THANK YOUFor more information: hudson@usfca.eduwww.usfca.edu/fac-staff/hudsonFrom Rural Village to Global Village:Telecommunications for Development in the Information Age