Information Society Watch

October 29, 2007, Richard Wray & Fahad Mayet, The Guardian

Reporting on the Connect Africa summit in the Rwandan capital of Kigali, the authors explore ways in which mobile phones may be used to aid development in Africa. A growing body of research finds that communications are an essential tool for economic regeneration, with telecommunications in particular harnessing the potential to impact GDPs and leading to an increase in foreign direct investment.

2005, Panos Media Toolkit on ICTs

This publication discusses how government policy has hindered the development of telephone and internet connectivity in Africa. It suggests that Very Small Aperture Terminal (VSAT) satellite technology can be one possible solution to connectivity in Africa but only if policy acts to create a ICT-friendly ecosystem in which VSAT services can establish themselves and grow.

September 2007, Richard Heeks & Abi Jagun, id21

This editorial discusses the ambivalent development implications of the recent 'explosive' growth of mobile phone use around the world. The editors foresee that in less than a generation the majority of poor people will have access to mobile phones and services.

Panos

The article looks at the potential of wireless technologies to bridge the digital divide and also the barriers to its growth in the less developed countries. The benefits of wireless networks, especially in the context of providing communication capabilities in rural areas, are enormous, especially in terms of infrastructure setup and maintenance which have been typically the chief hindrances to the spread of fixed line networks. Additionally it offers flexibility in its uses, with mobility being a key value proposition. The author presents a brief summary about the types of wireless networks currently in use and then discusses the role played by governments in aiding the widespread deployment of cost effective wireless networks.

August 29, 2007, Washington Post

Prohibitively high costs and poor speeds have often been attributed to low Internet penetration. However the Japanese example shows how both these factors have been overcome and Japan is now a leading force to reckon with in the area of broadband connections. The regulatory framework in Japan was stringent enough to compel big phone companies to open up wires to upstart Internet providers, enabling growth in the broadband sector.

September 4, 2007, BBC News Service

This article talks about the legal implications of unlocking phones which are locked in to a specific service provider specially citing the instance of the 'iPhone' which is a case in point. Consumer groups point out that this practice of forcing customers to stick to a certain service provider is extremely negative as it not only limits the choice of consumers to move to other providers, thus controlling free market forces; but it also means that the consumer has to forgo the freedom where she would have the option of switching over to local networks and avoid paying roaming fees while travelling, which is offered in unlocked phones.

July 30 2007, Kim Har, Washington Post

The article looks at the implications of the Federal Communications Commission (FCC) setting the rules for governing the auction of public airwaves in the USA. Google is seeking to aggressively enter this space with an approach different to the traditional behemoths like AT & T and Verizon. In the current business model, the carriers have control over content like web-sites and media that can be accessed from cell phones.

2007, Yeuzhi Zhao, International Journal of Communication

This article explores the paradoxes in the ‘digital revolution’ that China has witnessed during the last decade or so. The author describes the enormous social and cultural tensions that have been engendered by the aggressive launching of a state-led, market oriented, and technologically-driven “digital revolution” in the context of regressive developments in the social domain. The resulting developmental framework of a single nation state has posed profound challenges in governance, and thus necessitated the state’s relentless efforts in maintaining social stability through a fortified regime of information and communication control.

2004, Amin Alhassan, Tampere University Press

This book focuses on the articulation of development communication policy within the postcolonial nation-state, Ghana. It interrogates policy practices on broadcasting, telecommunications and Internet diffusion. This is done against two policy orientations of commodification as the requirement of globalisation, on the one hand, as against the extension of citizens’ access to communication conduit as a requirement of nation building.

2007, Irene Wu, Information Technologies and International Development, MIT Press Journal

This paper reflects on whether innovations in communications technology can dilute the power of China’s authoritarian government. With the introduction of new services like Voice over Internet Protocol (VoIP) and Little Smart (xiao lingtong) personal handyphone, the planned economy is breaking down and the government is constructing piecemeal the foundation for a rules-based economy. When these services first broke into China’s market, they were illegal, but consumers loved the services and demanded more.