The development community in general and the World Bank in particular recognize the importance of access to telecommunications as an element within the agenda of economic development and poverty reduction. The World Bank has adopted a strategy that includes universal access to telecommunications as a goal. This paper outlines various approaches that can be integrated to help close the 'access gap' to telecommunications where needed. These include: designing and implementing appropriate policies and regulations; acquiring both government subsidies and private investment funds; building...

'Telecommunications Challenges in Developing Countries' addresses an important aspect of interconnection - the settings of call termination charges. In rural telecommunications, network costs are known to be high. The traditional consensus has been that many rural areas cannot be connected without subsidies. This paper investigates the possibilities for implementing a geographically de-averaged charge regime indicative of the relative cost differences between urban and rural networks. This could change the business model for rural networks, significantly increasing revenues from incoming...