ICT policy
Venezuela’s advocacy action was carried out by EsLaRed and Funredes, the country’s AndinaTIC members, and focused on analysing a proposed reform of the telecommunications, information technology and postal service law. Among other things the law would grant greater control to the government which could pave the way for content regulation. The reform was proposed by organisations closely linked to the executive branch without the participation of other sectors. EsLaRed and Funredes promot...
Universal Access Funds, in Ecuador as well as several other countries of the region, were created in response to liberalisation and privatisation policies of the telecommunications companies. These funds, financed through a percentage of the companies’ profits, intended to finance projects to expand telecommunications infrastructure. This study analyses the Telecommunications Development Fund (FODETEL), the agency in charge of administering the fund in Ecuador, in rural and urban-marginal ...
This exploratory study, carried out by Funredes and EsLaRed, analyses the use of the Universal Service Fund (FSU-Fondo de Servicio Universal) in Venezuela. Since 2001 the FSU has financed access points in different areas as well as infrastructure and access networks for communities and government agencies. The study indicates that only 30% of the funding has been allocated and that, of this su...
The objective of this action was to include civil society’s perspective on the right to communication in Ecuador’s new communications law. This law, which should be approved in 2009, comes out of the Andean country’s new constitution. Civil society actively participated in the constitutional process and was successful in incorporating aspects related to the right to communication. The pr...
This document studies the case of the Telecommunications Investment Fund (FITEL), the Peruvian government agency that provides universal access to telecommunications in rural areas, privileging social concerns. The fund’s development during its 15 years in existence has meant going from mere infrastructure availability to projects implemented from a socio-technical perspective, where, in addi...
This advocacy action was carried out by CEPES, AndinaTIC member in Peru, compiling and systematizing documents on Peruvian government ICT projects. This task supplemented the organisation’s ongoing research on connectivity strategies in rural contexts. CEPES questions the governmental initiatives which tend to focus on access to infrastructure. It highlights the importance of taking the comm...
The action consisted of approaching the decision-makers for the Colombian government’s project to supply community internet access centres in schools, through which close to 1700 new telecentres will be installed. Colnodo and the National Network of Telecentres (RNT-Red Nacional de Telecentros), members of AndinaTIC in Colombia, have been working with the government to promote models of socia...
The Andean region has some of the lowest fixed telephone line, mobile telephony and broadband penetration rates of all Latin America, the continent with the starkest economic disparities in the world. In the 90s, Andean countries adopted new liberalisation and privatisation policies in order to attain universal access. Almost 20 years later, these promises have not been fulfilled. APC studied e...
Colnodo, Colombia’s AndinaTIC member, analysed the role of the country’s Communications Fund. The institution is part of the Ministry of Communications and administers the funds transferred by the various telecommunications companies operating in Colombia. It currently finances postal and social telephony programmes as well as ICT expansion to reach persons of limited income. Specifically ...
The policy of opening public ICT access centres that operate within educational institutions presents an opportunity to expand access to broadband infrastructure, as observed by Olpa Paz, Mauricio Escobar and Paula Ospina. In addition to the promotion of public access to ICTs, Colombia is also witnessing a growing trend towards the bundling of internet, cable television and fixed telephony ser...
Association for Progressive Communications (APC) 2022
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