Community Access to Communications: 10 Questions – Provisional Answers

1. Community Access to Communications:10 Questions – Provisional Answers Michael L. Best michael.best@inta.gatech.edu 26 August 2004

2. Ten Questions • Typology • Technologies • Public policies • Business models • Internal capacity • External capacity • Sustainability • Equity • Evaluation • Holism

3. Ten Questions • Typology • Technologies • Public policies • Business models • Internal capacity • External capacity • Sustainability • Equity • Evaluation • Holism

4. Question 3: Public Policies To truly realize broad community access to communications requires a range of supportive public policies.

5. Why Regulate? • Positive network externalities (the benefits a new consumer accrues from connecting - private benefits - are less than the total benefits to society.) • Merit goods • Political and regional development objectives

6. Universal Service Obligations Goals (might) include: • Geographic component (high-cost areas) • Economic component (low-income areas) • Democratization of provision Key is find a basket of policies that are non-discriminatory, competitively neutral, and inexpensive (efficient)

7. Universal Service Provision in India • RSP licenses for operation outside of metros • Barrier-free entry for RSPs • Revenue sharing terms for RSPs that are as attractive as the ones BSOs enjoy • Fee-free spectrum licensing for RSPs using wireless technologies • Rationalized and reduced taxes and duties on ICT goods (with A. Jhunjhunwala, C. Maclay, B. Ramamurthi)

8. International International International International Domestic Domestic Domestic Domestic Rural Service Provision: VoIP Terminate PC PSTN PC Originate PSTN

9. Public Policy: License-exempt Radio Usage • License exemption in USA at 2.4 GHz ISM band • Users do not require license to broadcast using approved radios. • Lowers entry barriers. • Enhances innovation and creative local uses.

10. License-Exempt Radio Bands in Africa: A Comparative Analysis Most African countries permit use but require license for 2.4 GHz (with I. Netto & S. Gillet)

11. License-Exempt Radio Bands in Africa: A Comparative Analysis • 50 of 54 African countries categorized. • Corresponding ITU study categorized only 12 countries. • 51% of countries require full licenses for broadcast in 2.4 GHz.

12. Unlicensed vs. Registration vs. Licensed Most African countries permit use but require license for 2.4 GHz

13. Harmonization! • Significant diversity in regulations across the continent inhibits economies of scale and may discourage large entrants. • Lack of clarity and enforcement discourages innovation and small entrepreneurs. • We propose that NEPAD, working with regional economic communities and international players, work to harmonize regulations across the continent and build personnel and enforcement capacity.

14. Question 4: Business Models One particularly exciting business model innovation is the micro- and small-enterprise provisioning basic and value-added communication services.

15. The Village Information Center Telecenters, telecottages, community technology centers, community communication shops, village knowledge centers, public call offices, networked learning centers, multipurpose community telecenters, digital clubhouses, cabinas públicas, infocentros, community access centers, ….

16. SARI: Sustainable Access in Rural India • SARI aims to…. • demonstrate the sustainability of the Internet and Internet-enabled systems and services in poor rural communities. • and show a linkage between such technologies and social and economic development. (with A. Jhunjhunwala, C. Maclay & J. Sinha)

17. The SARI Village Information Centers • Provide Internet via WLAN, PC, and application suite to villages - many that are off the phone grid • Each village information center is locally owned and operated (franchise model)

18. Pilot Project Scope • Working in Madurai District, Tamil Nadu, South India • Madurai city not included • Pilot project undertaken in the Taluk of Melur covering the two Panchayat Unions of Melur and Kottampatti • Service area 2,000 sq km, 32,000 people

19. Pilot Status • 80 connections in over 50 villages • Average village size of 1,000 households; smallest is 300 households • Highest density of rural Internet kiosks connections anywhere • In catchment area 23% of population has used the Internet (national average 1.5%, world 9%)

20. Padinetankudi Karungalakudi Keelavalavu Vellalur Urranganpatti Thaniamangalam Alagarkovil Neaythanpatti T.Ulagpitchanpatti Sengarampatti Othakadai Attapatti Kottampatti Chittampatti Pudhutamaraipatti Pulimalaipatti Mankulam Karpuooravahini A.Vellalapatti Navinipatti Kelaiyur Kallampatti Arittapatti Narasingampatti Therkutheru Kottakudi T.Vellalapatti Thiruvadhavur Arasappanpatti Vellaripatti Andipattipudur Thumbaipatti Melur- Kalanjiyam Tr Centre Palayasukkampatti Kuthappanpatti Kidaripatti Kattayampatti Pullipatti Connected Villages

21. Connected Villages

22. Current Applications • Education & Training (Windows, Office, etc.) • Cybercafe applications (e-mail, voicemail, chat) • E-government services (caste, income, birth, death certification, pension schemes, complaints and petitions) Over 600 applications processed in 10 months. • Entertainment applications (Tamil movies, astrology, games) • Tele-health, tele-agriculture, tele-veterinary services

23. Current Research Inputs Include There is an extraordinary challenge in collecting solid data on usage, outputs, and outcomes from rural facilities.(Colle & Roman) • household surveys • operator surveys • user surveys • instrumented PC’s • ISP meter reads • maintenance logs • daily usage reports • government usage reports • baseline surveys • payment reports

24. An ICT4D Sustainability Framework • Economic sustainability (Heeks) • Social/Cultural sustainability (IDRC) • Political/Institutional sustainability (IDRC) • Technological sustainability

25. Economic Sustainability: A Micro Business Model • Capital costs: • wiring, furniture $ 300 • kiosk equipment 1,000 • other 300 • Recurrent costs (monthly): • rent, electricity, maintenance 25 • Internet 15 • Interest and depreciation 28 • Break-even revenue $68 (per month) $ 2.70 (per day)

26. Scaling the Results • Tamil Nadu’s rural population density is 297 people per square kilometer • Most of rural Tamil Nadu is within 50 kilometers of fiber backbone • The quality of grid electricity in Madurai district is fair • The physical terrain of the Madurai district is fairly favorable for terrestrial wireless systems • Although these communities are poor (with individual incomes averaging below $1 per day) and agricultural based, high levels of awareness and sensitization to the value of ICT’s helps to drive interest in Internet services

27. Sensitivity Analysis Recall current break-even point is $2.70 per day • $300 Internet appliance $2.10 • 100 km Microwave backhaul 2.95 • Population density of 100 people per sq km 4.31 • VSAT 4.68 • PV Solar Cells 5.06

28. Sensitivity Analysis

29. Question 5: Internal Capacity By “internal capacity” I mean the training, skills, and capabilities of the community access center’s personnel and in particular the local manager and operator.

30. Selection The fat density ellipses (red circles) and rollercoaster smoothing spline fit (green line) indicate the lack of a correlation between the two explanatory variables (months of prior computer experience and months of prior work experience) and the single response variable (average number of hours of Internet use per month per site).

31. Training • Work-based projects or assignments • Observing experts and colleagues • Reading books and journals • Open learning and self-managed learning • Workshops, courses, seminars, or conferences(Murray, Murray & Brooks 2001)

32. Training • Peer-to-peer networks!

33. Retention “I'd say an operator lasts on an average 6 months. Maybe that's how long it takes to learn computer skills and get another job! [One operator], for example, is onto her fifth job in three years. [Another of one of our most successful owners] hires a new person perhaps every 4 months.”

34. Question 9: Evaluation “[E]valuation studies are urgently needed to provide an assessment of the role and impact of community telecentres, as organizations and donors are implementing these facilities… without an adequate understanding of how well they respond to the communication and information needs… or of their impacts on social equity and economic development.”(Whyte, 2000)

35. Critical Elements to Evaluation • Some of the critical elements to monitoring and evaluation include: • Start early and monitor often. It may make sense to begin baseline and preliminary assessments well before the facilities are ever in place. • Be sure to bring into the evaluation mix control communities (for instance comparable communities that are not part of the intervention). • Develop methodologies that are based on clear theoretical foundations (e.g. Roman 2003). • Develop consistent research frames, instruments, and a broad powerful range of indicators (Whyte, 2000).

36. Critical Elements to Evaluation • Disaggregate data along appropriate dimensions of equity (see Question 8). • Pay very close attention to data quality (which is often quite poor) (Roman & Colle, 2003). • Quantitative and objective measures that are amenable to statistical modeling can help ensure robust results (though it is easy to lie with statistics). • Qualitative and observational data can reveal truths that are not available to quantitative approaches (thought it is easy to be misled by anecdotes).

37. Usage Indicator I have performed a 22 month study of over 50 village information centers. (with J. Thomas)

38. Revenues Indicator

39. Linear Multivariate Model We are seeking a model of the form: . . Where ŷ is the response variable of interest (internet use) the x’s are the various explanatory variables, and the b’s are coefficients or parameters of the explanatory variables.

40. Least Squares Regression • NumHousholds The number of households within the village (village population). • %Hindu The percentage of the village that is Hindu (as opposed to Christian, Muslim, or other religions) • Teledensity The number of phone lines, per capita, in the village. • OperatorLandowner A dummy variable (1 or 0) representing whether the telecentre operator owns any land. • OperatorWorkExp The number of months of prior work experience that the telecentre operator has from other jobs. • OperatorOwnKiosk A dummy variable (1 or 0) representing whether the telecentre is owned by the operator. . .

41. Least Squares Regression . . Observed average Internet use plotted against predicted average Internet use (R2= 0.94, p = .0005, n=51).

42. Acknowledgments I have received the generous support of • The World Bank, UNEP, ITU, USAID and the Engineering Information Foundation SARI has been supported in part by • USAID, ICICI, the Internet Business Capital Corporation, n-Logue Communications Pvt. Ltd. and a grant from Ray Stata

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44. Community Access to Communications:10 Questions – Provisional Answers

45. Community Access to Communications:10 Questions – Provisional Answers Michael L. Best michael.best@inta.gatech.edu Thank You!