ICT Services for Poor Rural Community Development - What is Missing in Current Implementations?
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ICT Services for Poor Rural Community Development –
What is Missing in Current Implementations?
S. Moshapo and H E Hanrahan
Centre for Telecommunications Access and Services
School of Electrical and Information Engineering
University of the Witwatersrand, Johannesburg
e-mail: Segopotso.Moshapo@siemens.com; h.hanrahan@ee.wits.ac.za
Abstract: South Africa’s poor rural communities have While low-cost access to ICT services for poor rural
been provided ICT services through universal service communities is necessary, it is however not sufficient for
access initiatives such as telecentres for some years. The ensuring the desired social and economic development of
objective of such initiatives and the soon to be the communities. The challenge however does not end with
introduced under-serviced area operators is to facilitate low-cost access; the offered ICT services need to be relevant
the development of poor rural communities. This paper to the social and economic development requirements of the
discusses the successes and shortcomings of deployed communities. Relevant ICT and business models would
ICT solutions. Service provisioning approaches for ensure utilisation of the offered services and achievement of
enabling broad-based community development are also the desired social and economic development objectives.
discussed. Development is defined as the process of expanding human
capabilities and access to opportunities such that there is
Keywords: Telecommunications Licence, Under-serviced overall improvement in the quality of life [15].
Area, ICT services, Community Development, Universal
Service Access. This paper discusses the service models and associated
ICT solutions that are currently implemented for
I. INTRODUCTION provisioning ICT services to South Africa’s rural poor
communities. The aim is to highlight the suitability of the
Various research activities have shown that information implemented ICT access solutions in enabling the desired
and communication technologies (ICT) make a significant social and economic development of poor rural
contribution to economic growth and social development of communities. The paper further explores services and
communities [1,12,14]. This has subsequently been the basis technologies that are envisaged to facilitate social and
of the assumption that ICT investment in poor rural economic development of poor rural communities through
communities will result in the desired economic and social supporting effective and equitable public services delivery
development of such communities. Governments, social and revenue generation opportunities through ICT.
development agencies, regulatory authorities and researchers
have therefore focused on developing appropriate business, Section II presents background information on the
policy and technological solutions for provisioning definition of ICT services. The details of current solutions
information and communication services to poor rural for provisioning ICT services are presented in Section III.
communities at affordable cost. Section IV highlights the role and requirements for a new
service provisioning approach that enables community
Since the early 1980s, the Universal Access mission development through ICT. Concluding remarks are made in
pioneered by the International Telecommunications Union Section V.
(ITU) has been searching for solutions to provision ICT
services (originally telephony) within easy reach of all of II. SERVICE DEFINITION BACKGROUND
mankind [2]. The telecentre approach has emerged as the
most promising model for supporting universal access in Information and communication services are currently
poor communities. Telecentres make access to information offered to poor rural communities of South Africa by the
and communication services more affordable by providing fixed network operator and three mobile network operators
communal access to ICT facilities within easy reach of who are licensed to operate throughout the country. Service
community members. provisioning in poor rural communities is largely based on
the following models:
In more recent years as the telecommunications industry
undergoes deregulation (reformation), small-scale network • Private Service Access: users own the ICT terminal
operators are being licensed to operate in the so-called devices that they use to access services either from
under-serviced areas (typically poor and rural). Under- their own premises or on the move.
serviced area license (USAL) operators can be viewed as • Communal Service Access: a third party ICT
entrepreneurs that are enabled by regulatory policy to facilities provider (e.g. telecentre, phoneshop etc.)
challenge the notion that, poor rural communities are too provides physical premises for shared usage of ICT
complex to serve and not interesting enough to be worthy of terminal devices and aggregated access to services.
sustained attention. The apparent challenge for network
operators in poor rural areas is driving down the cost of Accessing services privately is more costly than through
owning ICT infrastructure [3]. communal facilities providers. The evaluation of current
service offerings distinguishes private and communalservice access to highlight the difference that the models (PC) by the service subscriber. PC’s are too expensive for
make to service provisioning in poor rural communities. most rural users; even those who can afford private access to
ICT services. The low utility of Internet services could also
The ITU-T definition of Services (i.e.” that which is
be due to a lack of compelling applications for the services.
offered to the user by the telecommunications network
operator” [4]) is adopted while Applications are defined as Applications submitted to the Independent
the purpose/s that the service fulfils for the user/s. Communications Authority of South Africa (ICASA) for the
Applications therefore reflect the community development under-serviced areas license propose voice telephony as the
role of ICT and it is for this reason that they are main service offering [7]. Most applicants propose to form
distinguished from services. partnerships with the mobile network operators to either
resell their pre-paid vouchers or use their network
III. CURRENT SERVICE PROVISIONING APPROACHES infrastructure to offer telephony services (i.e. operate as
virtual network operators) in the rural areas.
This section presents literature review of current
approaches to ICT service provisioning in poor rural The following are key attributes of the services that are
communities of South Africa. The basis of the private network operators are capable of offering to users with the
service access approach review are the various applications implemented network infrastructure:
for the USAL’s while the communal service access
Access = wireless and wireline
approach review is based on the South African Telecentre
Bearer Capacity = 9.6 kbit/s (wireless)
case studies of the year 2000.
= up to 64 kbit/s (wireline)
Bearer Mode = circuit
A. Private Service Access
Connection Mode = per call (on demand)
Figure 1 illustrates the provisioning of ICT services via Charging Mode = time and distance based (with
direct interfaces to users for private access. The pre-paid & post-paid options)
telecommunications network operator typically deploys Terminal Mobility = fixed or mobile
access network infrastructure (e.g. wireless base stations,
The bearer attributes restrict the service set that can be
copper pair line concentrators) in the vicinity of the users to
offered to users [8]. Bearer capacity (bandwidth) of up to 64
implement the access interfaces (wireless or wired). The
kbit/s and circuit mode operation as currently implemented
access network infrastructure and the rest of the operator’s is best suited for provisioning telephony services than
network would then connectivity to remote information Internet services. A wider scope of Internet services and
resources for the users.
applications can be offered with higher bandwidth (i.e.
broadband) and packet mode operation (this is discussed in
further detail later in this paper).
B. Communal Service Access
Figure 2 illustrates the model for provisioning ICT
services to an aggregated group of community members
through a terminal devices provider. This model introduces
a third party in the provisioning of ICT services between
users and network operators. The third party can be any
establishment from a multi-purpose community centre,
which provides telephones and PC’s to a simple kiosk on the
side of the street providing telephones to the public [2].
Figure 1: Private Service Access Model
Telecommunications network infrastructure that is
currently implemented in poor rural communities is capable
of provisioning telephony and Internet services. Service
subscribers can use the Telephony services for social or
business communications and the Internet services for
information sharing (e.g. access trading information, news,
etc.).
The dominant applications of ICT in poor rural
communities are based on voice telephony services [5,6].
Limited economic activity in poor rural communities
supports the argument that most of the voice
Figure 2: Communal Service Access Model
communications is about social interactions rather than
business interactions. The terminal device providers have a direct relationship
with the network operators who deploy the access network
Internet services such as e-mail, web browsing and file
infrastructure and provide wholesale connection time
transfers generally require ownership of a personal computer
(airtime). Airtime is retailed to the public who use theproviders ICT terminal devices (telephones, fax machines, • The bearer capability and mode are direct attributes
PCs etc.). of the access technology and they determine the
service set that can be offered to users.
Similarly to the private service access model, users can
access telephony and Internet services for social and • Access network infrastructure is necessarily
business applications. The aim of the communal access deployed and utilised within the vicinity of the rural
model is to make access to ICT services more affordable by area to provision ICT services.
removing the barrier of owning a telephone or computer.
Aggregating demand and allowing users to pay only for the Mobile network operators are the most prominent
service that they use when they need it, is expected to service providers in poor rural areas where they implement
further enhance affordability and scope of services that are Global System for Mobile Telecommunications (GSM)
offered. technology to provide mainly telephony services. The fixed
network operator implements classical copper pairs and
Telecentres offer the best opportunity to evaluate the wireless local loop (WLL) technologies to provision voice
utilisation of Internet services since offer a large scope of telephony and dial-up Internet access for the telecentres.
services which users can access at relatively low cost. They Figure 4 illustrates the basic architecture of the network
are mostly established through agencies such as the solutions that are currently implemented.
Universal Service Agency with all the necessary facilities
(e.g. PCs, fax machines, photocopiers etc.) to offer both
telephony and Internet services [9].
The telecentre case studies conducted in 2000 and 2001
by the IDRC and Link Centre (University of the
Witwatersrand) highlight the utilisation of services offered
by telecentres throughout South Africa. Interestingly, the
Internet services are of limited utility than anticipated as
indicated in Figure 3 . In the IDRC survey of 116 telecentres
throughout South Africa, about 35 telecentres offered e-mail
and browser services (communication services) to users
while more than 90 of these telecentres offered word
processing services (information service) [10]. This
corroborated by the LINK Centre survey, which found that
PC’s are utilised mainly for computer training purposes than
access to information services [9].
Figure 4: Rural Access Network Approaches
The success of GSM technology as the most prominent
technology for provisioning ICT services is attributed to its
wide deployment and acceptance throughout the world as
well as the speed of rollout and coverage that it supports [3].
GSM technology that is currently deployed is however
designed mainly for offering voice telephony services and
therefore lacks the intrinsic capability to provide data or
Internet services.
WLL technologies are however less successful than
GSM even though solutions such as those that are based on
the DECT (Digital Enhanced Cordless Telecommunications)
Figure 3: Computer based Services offered by system are more cost effective than GSM [11]. DECT
Telecentres throughout South Africa (Source: IDRC systems are also designed to provision voice telephony
Telecentre Case Study 2000 [10]) services with better service rollout speeds and coverage. The
Similarly to the private service access approach, voice corDECT system is designed to offer both Internet and
telephony services are the most utilised service offering in telephony services albeit at narrowband but is not widely
the communal service access approach. The surveys also deployed.
found that the telecentres that focus on offering telephony Wireline access is considered to be the most expensive
services only (e.g. Vodacom container phoneshops) are far solutions for provisioning ICT services in rural areas due to
more successful in terms of service utilisation and business the many kilometres of coppers that have to be rolled out to
operations than those that offer a larger scope of services various premises. Most of the current deployments provide
[9]. analog interfaces for voice telephony with the capability to
dial-up into the Internet at up to 56 kbit/s.
C. Rural Access Network Technologies
A review of the implemented access network D. Discussion of Current Service Offerings
technologies is appropriate to this assessment exercise for Telephony services are by far the dominant service
the following reasons: offering in terms of provisioning and utilisation by poorrural communities. The success of voice telephony services services are of such low utility. The low literacy levels and
can be attributed to the simplicity and effectiveness of this limited economic activity are rather better explanations of
form of communication for the key purposes of rural the prominence of voice telephony services. Poor rural
community members (i.e. contact with relation who are far communities therefore struggle to find relevant applications
away). for the scope of Internet services that are currently available
to them.
There are however clear economic benefits that voice
telephony service applications offer to rural communities. The potential impact of ICT on education, health
One such benefit can be seen in travel cost savings; the cost services and business activities of poor rural communities
of a phone call can be 3 to 7 times that of a trip which has to remains anecdotal even where access to basic telephony
be undertaken to acquire or impart information to distant technologies is already available. Technologies for
relations or trading partners [12]. Voice telephony is also provisioning telephony services are however not well suited
adequately effective for most communication requirements for provisioning enhanced Internet services based on
of rural communities because it is instant and is not multimedia applications for delivering new job opportunities
adversely inhibited by written literacy. and equitable public services provisioning to poor rural
communities.
The phoneshops, which are the very successful
communal service access facilities, tend to be operated by The observation that: “the core revenue generators are
entrepreneurs who members of the communities they information systems that connect people to each other
operate in. Telephony services therefore offer an opportunity despite barriers of time, distance, written literacy and
to uplift the social and economic status of community ownership of a telephone or computer”[13]; confirms the
members [12]. It is important to note though that these focus on implementing ICT for provisioning voice services
entrepreneurs generate a large proportion (if not all) of their rather than broader Internet services. This also highlights the
revenue from within their communities rather than from seemingly conflicting objectives that entrepreneurs within
outside. the rural communities and network operators face, i.e.
offering ICT services for broader community development
Internet services such as e-mail, file transfers and web
vs. offering simpler services that are guaranteed to generate
browsing are supported and available with the ICT solutions
revenue.
that are currently deployed in rural communities. These
services are of valuable business application in the more
IV. SERVICES FOR RURAL COMMUNITY DEVELOPMENT
economically active communities. They were envisaged to
facilitate economic development in poor rural communities The contribution of current ICT solutions to the
but telecentre case studies indicate that they are of limited development of poor rural communities is largely limited to
utility wherever they are available. improving efficiency (i.e. by reducing the cost of acquiring
goods or services – mainly social interaction). This
It is clear that rural communities do not (or cannot)
contribution is however not as significant as expected since
exploit the enhanced communication capability (in terms of
access to more opportunities is not necessarily improved.
acquiring and sharing information) of Internet services. The
following are amongst a number of issues that would be In addition to improving efficiency, the ability to access
attributed to this apparent lack of interest in Internet services and share information can contribute to social and economic
[13]: development by improving [14]:
• PCs are the most dominant devices for accessing the • Effectiveness: the quality of service or goods
Internet; they are relatively expensive and of low
reliability. • Equity: the distribution of development facilities
throughout the society.
• PC user interfaces are generally unsuitable for most
Improving effectiveness and equity in order to enable
users in poor communities, as they require written
development of poor rural communities will entail
literacy skills.
addressing issues such as limited access to transport, health
• The Internet services such as e-mail, web browsing, facilities, education resources and job opportunities through
file transfers require written literacy skills. the inherent efficiency of ICT.
• Internet content is not relevant to the needs of poor This section discusses the ICT services that are better
rural communities. suited to contributing to the development of poor rural
communities by improving effectiveness and equity.
The issues about PCs being relatively expensive would
be relevant to the private access model as the communal
A. Access to Public Services
access model removes the computer ownership barriers.
Telecentre studies indicate that PCs are utilised mainly for Poor rural communities are generally characterised by
general computer training purposes (e.g. word processing) lack of access to most of the necessary public service
than telecommunication purposes. The fact that facilities. Well-equipped health clinics and professionals are
photocopiers and printers are the most utilised facilities (by few and geographically far between. To access government
90% of users) in telecentres indicates that, users do not administration facilities (home affairs, welfare, trade and
necessarily find PC’s to be extremely difficult to operate. industry etc.) one has to travel to the office in urban areas.
Schools need access to highly qualified teachers and
Indeed, written literacy skills are relatively low in poor
advanced curricula that most urban and well-off students
rural communities but this does not explain why Internet
enjoy.The processes of offering health, government In the case of public services support, the government IT
administration and education services involve are largely facilities providers and network operators would generate
based on information sharing. In the case of poor rural revenue from the government while in the cases of job
communities, geographical distance is the most significant creation services the community members and facilities
barrier to acquiring effective services that are available in generate revenue from external customers. An ideal facilities
the more affluent urban areas. These services that are provider would be one that provides both public service and
available to urban communities, can however be made job opportunity services from common premises. This is
available to poor rural communities through telemedicine, e- however not always achievable as for example health
government and distant-education solutions that are based services and education services are generally provided from
on ICT. separate premises.
Telemedicine solutions can extend the services of highly From a telecommunications network infrastructure
skilled health professionals and advanced equipment to perspective, the following are the key attributes of the
remote areas, while through e-government solutions service that needs to be provided to the communities:
community members can communicate with the government
Access = wireless and wireline
without visiting their offices. Schools can share curricula
Bearer Capacity = broadband
and participate in virtual interactive classrooms with expert
Bearer Mode = packet mode
teachers on particular subjects.
Connection Mode = always on
In to offer these services effectively, multimedia (voice, Charging Mode = flat-rate or volume based
data and video) capability is required from the ICT solutions Terminal Mobility = fixed or mobile
that are implemented.
This capability of the network infrastructure is essential
for supporting multimedia information sharing applications.
B. Supporting Entrepreneurship and Creating Jobs
Broadband wireless technologies such as those based on
The ability of ICT to create job opportunities and CDMA (code division multiple access) as wireline DSL
revenue generating services in rural communities has largely (digital subscriber line) technologies are well suited for
been limited to the operation and maintenance of telecentres these applications [3].
and phoneshops. Information based services however can be
Broadband technologies are capable of supporting voice,
performed anywhere and delivered anywhere provided the
data and video services and therefore have wider scope of
relevant communications facilities and skills are available.
application than narrowband technologies, which are
South Africa’s poor rural areas are inhabited by people currently implemented. With appropriate network solutions
who have a variety of literacy skills ranging from trained implementations broadband technologies can be cost
teachers who cannot find employment within the education efficient solutions due to economies of scope capabilities.
system to semi-literate and illiterate individuals. New ICT
Most rural communities do not have access to financial
technologies need to exploit the various skills of these
resources to establish ICT backoffices within their
community members to generate revenue for themselves by
communities in order to provide services to external
offering remote ICT services beyond their neighbourhoods.
customers. They have time and personal skills that they can
ICT solutions that support multimedia communications provide for a fee beyond their neighbourhood. It is therefore
enhance the ability to exploit various skills of community necessary to find both policy and technological solutions
members including those that do not have written skills. that will enable rural communities to access ICT
Security sensitive areas require video surveillance solutions infrastructure beyond their vicinity that they can utilise to
to monitor and detect any suspicious behaviour. People who provide information services. Distributed computing
do not necessarily have written skills can monitor solutions and policies that enable the establishment of small
surveillance cameras remotely through appropriate ICT information services providers along the lines of USALs
solutions. Individuals with better literacy skills can be would facilitate the contribution of ICT to rural community
trained to offer services such as ICT problem solving etc. development.
Entrepreneurs can generate revenue from the teletraffic
V. CONCLUSION
that traverse their networks as well as from the services that
are provided. Voice telephony is the most prominent and utilised
service wherever access to ICT is available. The
C. Service Provisioning Model and Technologies contribution of voice telephony to the development of poor
rural communities is however of limited significance.
ICT services that support the delivery of public services Internet services that are provided through dial-up over the
and job opportunities to poor rural communities are clearly telephony network infrastructure are of very low utility. The
not only dependent on the role of telecommunications
development of poor rural communities requires ICT
network operators. The role of third party facilities providers
services that will attract revenue and public services to
(such as telecentre operators) is crucial to successful service
community members in the most efficient manner. Modern
delivery. These third party operators are required to provide
broadband telecommunications technologies can support the
the information technology (IT) and human resources provisioning of multimedia services that enable a large
facilitate access to information applications such as e- scope of applications that can be beneficial to multi-literacy
government, telemedicine, distance-education and other
users (including those who do not have written literacy
revenue generating services.
skills). Endeavours to ensure sustainable ICT services
provisioning for rural poor community developmenttherefore need to focus on establishing appropriate services BIOGRAPHY
as much as on low-cost ICT solutions that can be easily
Segopotso Moshapo is a BSc(Eng) and M.Eng graduate
utilised by most community members.
of the University of the Witwatersrand, Johannesburg. He is
employed by Siemens Telecommunications where he is a
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