ICT policy
Ecuador is one of the countries with the lowest broadband internet penetration rates in the region, a mere 2.7%, notes María Eugenia Hidalgo. This, she says, is the legacy of a failed privatisation process in the telecommunications sector and the subsequent adoption of legal reforms that handed the most profitable segment of the market (mobile telephony) to the transnational private sector. The liberalisation of the sector was enshrined in the constitution adopted in 1998 which eliminated th...
Ysabel Briceño observes that the long distance that most internet traffic must travel outside the region before returning back to the region is a problem that affects both the quality and cost of communications services in the countries of South America, including Venezuela. As a result of this, she notes, the creation of NAPs has emerged as a solution to avoid routing local internet traffic through international channels, and as a means of improving the quality of service in terms of speed...
Researcher Jorge Bossio poses the questions: Can you imagine a day when there are two kinds of internet networks, one open and public and the other closed and exclusive, similar to free-to-air television channels and cable television channels? Can you imagine only being able to access certain websites or online applications by paying extra for a specific internet access service, like the &ldquo...
In the early 21st century, fixed-line telephony was pushed into the background by the advent of mobile telephony, which is now being challenged by internet protocol (IP) communications, observe Guillermo Mastrini and Carolina Aguerre. This raises the need for policies for the development of broadband in Latin America to promote the economic and social progress of the region’s countries and th...
Since the APC Africa ICT Policy Monitor started in 2001, significant inroads into raising the profile of the need for progressive ICT policy approaches in Africa have been made. The need for a portal like the Africa ICT Policy Monitor that collects and organises news and resources on a vast array of issues has diminished, but APC’s policy programme’s Africa wing will continue to report on i...
The telecoms situation in Benin is unique. The array of mobile telephone enterprises established during Mathieu Kérékou’s regime has resulted in the average Beninese owning three, four, or even five SIM cards for their daily communication needs. Facilitated by corruption and skyrocketing prices, it was not until the arrival to power of the new president Yayi Boni in 2006 that reform in thi...
“The post WSIS clock is ticking and many challenges remain,” said APC executive director Anriette Esterhuysen at the opening of the twelfth session of the Commission on Science and Technology for Development (CSDT). Among these challenges, she talked about WSIS principles related to human rights: “In many countries from the developed world and the developing world there is still a sense t...
“The IGF has embodied the WSIS Principles – that internet governance should be multilateral, transparent and democratic, with the full involvement of governments, the private sector, civil society and international organisations – in its practice as a space for policy dialogue. [...] There are however areas that need improvement. Participation of civil society, and in some cases also of d...
APC member ZaMirNET has been working hard on uncovering the truth about war crimes committed during the Yugoslav wars, between 1991 and 2001. In late October, they joined an initiative to establish a regional body that will expose the truth about war crimes committed in the former Yugoslavia, which will help serve justice and guarantee that these crimes will not be repeated in the future. More...
It seems the efforts of people like Mr.Praveen Dalal are finally appreciated and have
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