Cross-subsidies on the Internet and on cellular networks

Abstract

""Thanks to the increasing power and decreasing cost of digital electronics, these two modern technologies have been gradually overtaking – if not actually threatening to replace – more traditional technologies like landline phones, hand-held radios, cable (messages and television), broadcast stations (radio and TV), newspapers, magazines, fax, and so on. The Internet, in addition, enjoys a huge advantage over other technologies due to the relative absence of government regulations and bureaucratic requirements compared to, say, broadcast media. Among development agencies, many have embraced the Internet and cellphones because of their promise to democratize communications. In the past, the poor (countries, sectors, communities and families) have tended to remain poor partly because of lack of access to information and knowledge. Development agencies believed that access to necessary know-how as well as ‘know-what’, ‘know-where’ and ‘know-why’ was a key to poverty reduction. Internet and cellular technologies are therefore being sold to governments and the public partly on the promise of improving access to educational services, job opportunities, as well as market information."