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New U.S. telecom policies: A third world perspective
TELEMATICS and INFORMATICS
Vol. 6, No. 1, pp. 59-61,1989 Copyright © 1989 Pergamon Press plc. Printed in the USA 0736-5853/89 $3.00 + .00
NEW U.S. TELECOM POLICIES: A THIRD WORLD PERSPECTIVE Naren Chitty Abstract-Strategic cooperation between MDC and NIC manufacturers and LDC research institutions can identify new products for large new low-end markets in LDC economies, raising productivity. My perspective, which one may characterize as a Third World perspective, is one which recognizes the self-interest of individual nation states but which suggests that there is a mutuality of interests in subscribing, even on a differential basis, toward the c o m m o n good. Theoretically this fits within the perspective of the neorealist idiom of International Relations. It certainly is an approach which one sees that several Third World technocrats have moved towards in the 1980's. The Third World is not a political organization with an overall political ideology; it is a mass of people divided into two main groups, namely the "influentials," to use Lasswellian terminology, who are " m o d e r n " and "privileged" and the rest of society which is at various stages of modernization and is relatively underprivileged. It is in the political self-interest of the influentials to represent the interests of large underprivileged populations of the Third World when they interface with the global modernizing programs of the United States and the West. These large groups live within the fabric of traditional cultures, their own modernity, integrated into the technological environment of Western modernity mediated by the influentials. It is also in the selfinterest of the United States to look on these large populations as potential markets for American goods, not just in the future but, through judicious technological adaptation to rural low-income needs and economic capabilities, to access those markets now. In telecommunications, the United States has recognized this as may be seen from the following paragraph taken from a study conducted by Lauffer and Robertson (1987, p. 2): The leadership vacuum in providing telecommunications services to and within developing countries gives the United States an opportunity that has trade, development and national security implications. The challenge is to develop credible analysis to identify and support policy and investment opportunities that will extend telecommunications out into the poorest segments of national economies and enable that telecommunications capacity to function as an amplifier of local economic capacity.
FUTURE U.S. POLICIES In order to meet the needs of these poorer segments in developing countries, and serve
Naren Chitty served as Counsellor of the Sri Lankan Embassy and Sri Lanka's Representative to INTELSAT's Assembly of Parties meetings between 1982-88.
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Naren Chitty
its own market expansion interests, I believe that U.S. policy in this respect should include the following objectives: 1. Development of local or regional telecommunications training institutions to supplement the training of agencies such as U S T T I and to focus on expanding telecommunication expertise to the rural sector. 2. Development of regional telecommunication research facilities in order to develop or adapt telecommunication technologies which may service the needs of the poorest segments taking into account their cultural and economic environments. 3. Support the provision o f low cost domestic satellite communication services. 4. Encourage strategic cooperation between U.S. telecommunications and electronics industry with regional centers and local production facilities for telecommunication goods designed to meet specific needs in poorer market segments. Strategically, it would be useful to initiate a comprehensive study on the nature and magnitude of the impact of the communication revolution, particularly the telematic revolution, on Third World countries with specific reference to differentials between the influentials and the poorer segments. This study should be conducted with a view to providing suggestions to industry in the United States as to what opportunities there might be in assessing and addressing the needs on the poorer segments o f society through adaptation and simplification o f existing technologies. The parallel is the kiddie market for electronics goods in the U.S. The toy industry has been creative in its utilization of electronics technology for learning or entertainment toys for children of all ages. As much as there is a market for children's electronics goods in the U.S. which has in a sense been created by an inventive toy industry, there is a market for rural electronics awaiting the inventiveness o f entrepreneurs. Unfortunately, there is no equivalent of a toy industry in development. There is recognition o f the importance o f this potential rural market in the study I quoted earlier (Lauffer & Robertson, 1987, p. 1): It is easier because technological, financial, political, and institutional developments provide new tools and instruments to meet the circumstances of more diverse users than ever before. It is more difficult because the gradient between the poor and the more fortunate has increased dramatically in practically all countries, including the most developed. In this gradient of relative wealth, the poor sector of national economies gets larger, while the high end of the economic spectrum continues to become more wealthy, particularly in the urban areas. One result of these changes is that the high end of national economies is more competitive for telecommunications services. In contrast, the low end of national economies, which is the most stressed, is of marginal productive value, yet it supports much of the population, often through subtle economic activities such as subsistence production, barter markets, and extended support systems such as family and small-community relations. Much of this activity is below the threshhold of conventional economics and conventional processes for identifying investment opportunities. To the extent that there is a new telecommunication mandate with regard to developing countries, it is to be found in serving this low end of national economies. One key to the success of such efforts is to be found in improving the ability of donors and investors to identify and support the provision of services to a larger portion of the low end of the economic spectrum than is currently served.
New U.S. telecom policies
61
The study I have quoted from focuses on telecommunication services. But the same truth applies to the hardware and R&D ends of telematics as well, and I am convinced that only through conceptualizing strategic cooperation in R&D, production and distribution, as well as making satellite and other carrier services more economically accessible to the low-end or poorer segments, that the communications revolution could be utilized as an engine of upliftment for all. Already there are some local or regional telecommunications training centers in developing countries. I am familiar with one in particular, the Arthur Clarke Center for Modern Technologies in Sri Lanka, which I helped set up in the early 1980's. If U.S. policy is to bring the low end of economies into the picture, these centers need to be integrated through a funding program which aims at extending electronics and telecommunication training of a basic nature to segments of that low end. Similarly, regional telecommunications research facilities, where they exist, should be drawn into a research program, which is strategically linked with electronics and telecommunication products manufacturers, designed to adapt existing technologies into productivity raising or money-saving products which could be marketable in the low segments of developing country economies, particularly as production of labor intensive components that could be executed within the region or within the country concerned, depending on market size, at low cost. Supporting the provision of low-cost domestic satellite communications is an important part of this low-end package. However, it is important to introduce special rates for public service satellite communications even on a global basis to encourage the development of not-for-profit global institutions of learning which are designed to ultimately benefit the low end. This is in a sense an appeal for the extension, expansion, and institutionalization of the Project SHARE concept, authored by Dr. Joe Pelton, INTELSAT. There are new institutions in the offing which have been designed to distribute knowledge via satellite, institutions such as the Commonwealth of Learning and the Foundation on International Tele-education (FIT). In conclusion, the United States, through its leadership in INTELSAT, has helped quicken the expansion of the global tele-community. Through the kind of program I have suggested, aimed at the low end of economies, and encompassing not merely telecommunication services but also a complete package of strategic cooperation in R&D, overseas investment, production and distribution, the telecommunication revolution will fulfill its promise.
REFERENCE Lauffer S. & Robertson, T. A. (1987). A study on the impact of U.S. separate satellite systems policy on developing countries. The U.S. Department of State, BCIP.
Vol. 6, No. 1, pp. 59-61,1989 Copyright © 1989 Pergamon Press plc. Printed in the USA 0736-5853/89 $3.00 + .00
NEW U.S. TELECOM POLICIES: A THIRD WORLD PERSPECTIVE Naren Chitty Abstract-Strategic cooperation between MDC and NIC manufacturers and LDC research institutions can identify new products for large new low-end markets in LDC economies, raising productivity. My perspective, which one may characterize as a Third World perspective, is one which recognizes the self-interest of individual nation states but which suggests that there is a mutuality of interests in subscribing, even on a differential basis, toward the c o m m o n good. Theoretically this fits within the perspective of the neorealist idiom of International Relations. It certainly is an approach which one sees that several Third World technocrats have moved towards in the 1980's. The Third World is not a political organization with an overall political ideology; it is a mass of people divided into two main groups, namely the "influentials," to use Lasswellian terminology, who are " m o d e r n " and "privileged" and the rest of society which is at various stages of modernization and is relatively underprivileged. It is in the political self-interest of the influentials to represent the interests of large underprivileged populations of the Third World when they interface with the global modernizing programs of the United States and the West. These large groups live within the fabric of traditional cultures, their own modernity, integrated into the technological environment of Western modernity mediated by the influentials. It is also in the selfinterest of the United States to look on these large populations as potential markets for American goods, not just in the future but, through judicious technological adaptation to rural low-income needs and economic capabilities, to access those markets now. In telecommunications, the United States has recognized this as may be seen from the following paragraph taken from a study conducted by Lauffer and Robertson (1987, p. 2): The leadership vacuum in providing telecommunications services to and within developing countries gives the United States an opportunity that has trade, development and national security implications. The challenge is to develop credible analysis to identify and support policy and investment opportunities that will extend telecommunications out into the poorest segments of national economies and enable that telecommunications capacity to function as an amplifier of local economic capacity.
FUTURE U.S. POLICIES In order to meet the needs of these poorer segments in developing countries, and serve
Naren Chitty served as Counsellor of the Sri Lankan Embassy and Sri Lanka's Representative to INTELSAT's Assembly of Parties meetings between 1982-88.
59
60
Naren Chitty
its own market expansion interests, I believe that U.S. policy in this respect should include the following objectives: 1. Development of local or regional telecommunications training institutions to supplement the training of agencies such as U S T T I and to focus on expanding telecommunication expertise to the rural sector. 2. Development of regional telecommunication research facilities in order to develop or adapt telecommunication technologies which may service the needs of the poorest segments taking into account their cultural and economic environments. 3. Support the provision o f low cost domestic satellite communication services. 4. Encourage strategic cooperation between U.S. telecommunications and electronics industry with regional centers and local production facilities for telecommunication goods designed to meet specific needs in poorer market segments. Strategically, it would be useful to initiate a comprehensive study on the nature and magnitude of the impact of the communication revolution, particularly the telematic revolution, on Third World countries with specific reference to differentials between the influentials and the poorer segments. This study should be conducted with a view to providing suggestions to industry in the United States as to what opportunities there might be in assessing and addressing the needs on the poorer segments o f society through adaptation and simplification o f existing technologies. The parallel is the kiddie market for electronics goods in the U.S. The toy industry has been creative in its utilization of electronics technology for learning or entertainment toys for children of all ages. As much as there is a market for children's electronics goods in the U.S. which has in a sense been created by an inventive toy industry, there is a market for rural electronics awaiting the inventiveness o f entrepreneurs. Unfortunately, there is no equivalent of a toy industry in development. There is recognition o f the importance o f this potential rural market in the study I quoted earlier (Lauffer & Robertson, 1987, p. 1): It is easier because technological, financial, political, and institutional developments provide new tools and instruments to meet the circumstances of more diverse users than ever before. It is more difficult because the gradient between the poor and the more fortunate has increased dramatically in practically all countries, including the most developed. In this gradient of relative wealth, the poor sector of national economies gets larger, while the high end of the economic spectrum continues to become more wealthy, particularly in the urban areas. One result of these changes is that the high end of national economies is more competitive for telecommunications services. In contrast, the low end of national economies, which is the most stressed, is of marginal productive value, yet it supports much of the population, often through subtle economic activities such as subsistence production, barter markets, and extended support systems such as family and small-community relations. Much of this activity is below the threshhold of conventional economics and conventional processes for identifying investment opportunities. To the extent that there is a new telecommunication mandate with regard to developing countries, it is to be found in serving this low end of national economies. One key to the success of such efforts is to be found in improving the ability of donors and investors to identify and support the provision of services to a larger portion of the low end of the economic spectrum than is currently served.
New U.S. telecom policies
61
The study I have quoted from focuses on telecommunication services. But the same truth applies to the hardware and R&D ends of telematics as well, and I am convinced that only through conceptualizing strategic cooperation in R&D, production and distribution, as well as making satellite and other carrier services more economically accessible to the low-end or poorer segments, that the communications revolution could be utilized as an engine of upliftment for all. Already there are some local or regional telecommunications training centers in developing countries. I am familiar with one in particular, the Arthur Clarke Center for Modern Technologies in Sri Lanka, which I helped set up in the early 1980's. If U.S. policy is to bring the low end of economies into the picture, these centers need to be integrated through a funding program which aims at extending electronics and telecommunication training of a basic nature to segments of that low end. Similarly, regional telecommunications research facilities, where they exist, should be drawn into a research program, which is strategically linked with electronics and telecommunication products manufacturers, designed to adapt existing technologies into productivity raising or money-saving products which could be marketable in the low segments of developing country economies, particularly as production of labor intensive components that could be executed within the region or within the country concerned, depending on market size, at low cost. Supporting the provision of low-cost domestic satellite communications is an important part of this low-end package. However, it is important to introduce special rates for public service satellite communications even on a global basis to encourage the development of not-for-profit global institutions of learning which are designed to ultimately benefit the low end. This is in a sense an appeal for the extension, expansion, and institutionalization of the Project SHARE concept, authored by Dr. Joe Pelton, INTELSAT. There are new institutions in the offing which have been designed to distribute knowledge via satellite, institutions such as the Commonwealth of Learning and the Foundation on International Tele-education (FIT). In conclusion, the United States, through its leadership in INTELSAT, has helped quicken the expansion of the global tele-community. Through the kind of program I have suggested, aimed at the low end of economies, and encompassing not merely telecommunication services but also a complete package of strategic cooperation in R&D, overseas investment, production and distribution, the telecommunication revolution will fulfill its promise.
REFERENCE Lauffer S. & Robertson, T. A. (1987). A study on the impact of U.S. separate satellite systems policy on developing countries. The U.S. Department of State, BCIP.