Institutional Overview: Global Information Society Watch 2008 Report

This overview chapter, written for Global Information Society Watch 2008 Report, is concerned with ways in which global institutions have addressed access to information and communication technology (ICT) infrastructure since the World Summit on the Information Society (WSIS), particularly during the year 2008. The chapter seeks to put their role in context. Its first section reviews key issues in the recent debate about access to infrastructure. The second section considers recent developments in institutional policy and future access challenges.

The opening section reviews the WSIS access objectives and then considers institutional approaches to three issues: the relationship between supply- and demand-side aspects of access; types and levels of service provision; and types and levels of infrastructure. Infrastructure is described as essential for ICT access. Broader understandings of access, as stated here, stress demand-side factors, which focus on enabling communities and empowering citizens. Thus, the enabling policy and regulatory framework for ICT access is of concern as suggested here: "Strategies concerned with liberalisation and interconnection, for example, affect both the pace and nature of infrastructure deployment and the price and quality of services to end-users."


Because the “digital divide” in voice telephony is narrowing rapidly, with little financial involvement by international financial institutions (IFIs) or development agencies, there is a debate about whether to prioritise telephony, hoping that internet access will develop organically from this, or whether access to the internet and broadband networks, which, as stated here, offer greater economic and empowerment value, should therefore be prioritised. ICT businesses have responded more quickly to technological and market changes than global institutions. Many businesses are now doing their planning based on the assumption that mass access to broadband in low-income countries will develop first through wireless, not fixed infrastructure.

Because the three tiers - international infrastructure; regional or national infrastructure; and local access networks - are required for access to global telephony or internet to be available in a community, band width, cost, and quality are interdependent in determining local access, and each tier has challenges in those areas. Thus, questions for global institutions are focused in two main areas:
• the technology and financing of infrastructure deployment, which primarily determine the availability of access.
• the regulation of infrastructure and markets, which primarily determine the affordability of access.


IFI and private telecoms scrutinise the relative economics and developmental value of investment in basic telephony and internet/broadband services and networks. However, there are areas, particularly rural areas, that may never gain private investment attention. The following are the conclusions of the WSIS Task Force on Financial Mechanisms (TFFM):
• "Investment in ICTs should come primarily from the private sector. Regulatory reform - including the promotion of liberalisation and open communications markets - should continue to be the foundation for institutional engagement with the sector.
• Nevertheless, there was scope for more public-private partnerships and the creative use of short-term public funding for capital investment where commercial viability was uncertain or unlikely. This might include both remote rural areas and the more general deployment of higher-capacity networks.
• There might also be scope for public participation, alongside the private sector, in major infrastructure investments such as regional backbones.
• Existing institutional funding mechanisms were sufficient to enable this additional investment. No new mechanisms were required."


The document reviews two examples of institutional participation within mixed (public/private) funding structures: the proposed deployment of fibre-optic cable along Africa’s east coast and the Pacific Plan Digital Strategy, both intended to give regional "backbone" to the ICT infrastructure. A change in thinking within regions is that wireless networks, which have low fixed costs and are readily scalable, are generally cheaper in the short and medium term where demand is relatively low. The World Bank, as reported here, "thinks it 'likely' that some rural areas will continue to require public funding - through subsidies, shared infrastructure or incentives - but envisages most access challenges being addressed through measures to promote investment, stimulate downstream (service) competition, and reduce political and commercial risks."

There is a continued emphasis among governments and financial institutions on policy and regulatory reform. The document reviews regulatory and new issues and concludes that: "Global institutions have shown somewhat more interest, since WSIS, in supporting and leveraging investment in areas which are difficult to serve (such as remote areas) or require high levels of capital investment (such as international cables and regional/national backbones), though their primary focus remains on policy and regulatory change. However, there is still relatively little thought given to the integration of different tiers of access infrastructure, to the integration of communications with other infrastructure, and to the relationship between infrastructure and development. More holistic understanding of access and more attention to the demand side of access supply - in particular, to usage requirements and experience - would help institutions play a more dynamic role in this area."