We are pleased to present the fifth edition of the International Telecommunication Union’s Trends in Telecommunication Reform. This year’s edition of Trends focuses on practical tools for regulators to promote universal access to information and...

The global telecommunication sector has been through a series of shocks during the past few years. Troubles began in the spring of 2000, when high-technology share values around the world slid and, in some cases, crashed. The decline in many publicly...

Universal service has been an implicit telecommunication policy objective in most countries. In the last decade, a growing number of governments have made their universal service policies more explicit - going so far, in some cases, as to design...

Increasingly, policy-makers and industry experts are altering their views of un-served and under-served areas within their national borders, regarding them less as intractable problems and more as potential markets for investment, given the right...

As stated in the previous Chapter, there have been promising gains from efforts to enlist the market in achieving universal access/service goals. However, many rural areas throughout the developing world remain un-served by any communications...

This chapter explores the options policy-makers have for fostering and supporting “multipurpose community telecentres” (MCTs) as key resources for community access to basic and advanced ICT services. The concept of community-based telecentres has...

Kofi Annan recently added his voice to a growing community of technologists, public policy officials and telecommunication practitioners who foresee a revolution in rural universal access. This revolution will be founded on a new suite of wireless...

The desire to bring the benefits of telecommunication and ICT services within reach of every human being is not new. Indeed, one could argue that this core objective has been at the heart of telecommunication policy since 1876. Whether through the...