Virtual Discussion 1 (02/03 - 05/03)

[Mangin]

Discussion on the "Issues in the implementation of Broadband Access in Developping" Countries

[Mangin]

Thrid Question: What are the usages you are making (or you will make) of broadband access?

[EL HADJI MAMAN LAMINOU]

The common daily usages to exchange informations and data with parterners, to improve the way in which we are doing it today. We can use broadband access for e-learning,indeed for telemedecine, e-government which are some projects on implementation in Africa for exemple.

[Jacob B. Odame]

Broadband access to me means limitless communication and access to information. e-Learning , e-business, e-everything. Broadband infrastructure can help improve education so that people can study from homes and at their leisure. It would help in effective collaboration among different partners working on same projects. It is actually improving my business and I think more jobs are being created daily for people with broadband access.

[Mangin]

And what do you think should be the special caracteristics of this broadband access? I mean, we don't need for example the same access to look at a video or to use a microblogging service.

[Mangin]

Fourth Question: What will be the most appropriate technology in the next three years for broadband access?

[Vivek Vaidyanathan]

While the deployment of broadband access certainly does depend on technological breakthroughs, what is first required is the understanding that technologies are a public investment, which need to be embedded in democratically elected social institutions, which have a buy in from citizens. It is only then that technologies will succeed. India has seen a host of ICT projects - some of which have aimed at charging money for services which people didn't pay for previously. Other projects operated in isolation bypassing governance institutions... the net result was that citizens did not use the services owing to multiple factors.
The bottom line is that any ICT project must look at issues of social inclusion, which is the means to financial sustainability and not the other way around.
So to answer to the question... technological breakthroughs are important... but they need to be embedded in local institutions and must have a big component of social inclusiveness.

[Vivek Vaidyanathan]

Low cost broadband is one of the essential prerequisites for achieving broadband growth. One of the obvious advantages that I can think of with the advent of low cost broadband access, especially in rural areas in India is that it will facilitate the penetration of the Internet which is missing to a large extent. This Internet connectivity can and should be linked with the development needs in ways that citizens can participate in the development process.

Mangin said:

Second Question: What are (or will be) the advantages of low cost broadband access for you, your organization or the people you are working for?

[Jacob B. Odame]

I think the best technologies for effective broadband access is to aim at 3.5 G and higher network technologies. These technologies is useful for streaming videos and other bandwidth consuming services. This technology is expensive but governments of developing countries need to make that investment and through appropriate public-private-partnerships. People in developing countries are not using that internet speed necessary for web-enabled businesses and effective collaborations.