Connectivity model IICD presented at World Bank conference

IICD was invited to share their experiences on the implementation of telecentres in Bolivia. At IICD, Liang Tan has been responsible for both the technical, as well as management and administration aspects of the pilot implementations. He has also replicated and improved the concept from Bolivia in Ecuador. The result is an alternative connectivity model based on the experiences gathered using telecentres; until this time the most suitable solution for connectivity were not satisfying. This alternative, a Community of Networks, is based on shared connectivity which means that a group of local actors unite to make connectivity more affordable and therefore make access to the internet and information feasible. The new model was successfully tested in Bolivia and Ecuador and can be replicated in Africa and Latin America, as well as Asia.

The study paper on the new connectivity model that IICD presented at the conference indicated a number of crucial issues that can only be taken care off by the regulators and are beyond the scope of the general public, like NGO’s, private companies, etc. Attending the conference was therefore a unique opportunity for IICD to not only to share the experience, but also to gauge and engage with the various regulators and the public at large. It was also interesting as it gave an opportunity to voice concerns and to share possible recommendations.

For IICD the conference has become quite successful as in the closing statements of the conference a number of points were included; among them one of the most important was that access to Universal Access funds needs to be simpler and allow for much smaller investment amounts. Also the regulators must be much more pro-active in monitoring and regulating the service offerings of ISP in terms of Quality of Service (QoS) and cost of broadband access.