Telecommunications: an opportunity to shorten educational and democratic gaps

by Juan Pablo Nieto

Latin America is going through a formidable economic moment. Economic growth rates are extraordinary and unemployment has reached its lowest record in history. Foreign Investment (in most of the countries) has exceeded every expectation and the world has ceased to see the region as an undeveloped zone, and now analyzes it as one with commercial opportunities. These are some of the factors that make various industries to continue growing, while other new ones continue strengthening further. The latter is the case of the telecommunication industry.

While various technologies converge and the speed required for both applications to simply “surf” the Internet increases, many countries forgot the urgent need to reduce the digital gap between different sectors of the society. This creates a terrible inequality of opportunities, separating social strata not only for network access, but also the inalienable right to freely inform and thereby improve the democratic system. It is not unusual to see how the most socially advanced countries, with higher human development index in the world, have a direct relationship with the countries with the most stable democracies.

Telecommunications can play a key role in the development of our democracies. Through government support policies for deepening the reach of the network in the most disadvantaged places (whether due to financial problems or difficulties in access), promoting access to broadband with fair prices for small entrepreneurs or teleworkers and bringing all schools in the country with electronic devices with connectivity, an environment of sustainable development can be created where freedom of work and information takes place.

These technologies are available and the benefit to cost ratio is high**. It’s a matter of us to demand our leaders (who often ignore the significance of connectivity) that more people have access to free knowledge.**
** Make ourselves more aware citizens depends on us all.**

This can lead to a number of questions but** I would like your opinions on how to accomplish this.**

  • Is the Government, solely responsible for the penetration of telecommunication technologies in your country?
  • Is it possible that the market itself, due to their economic demands, can cause private telecommunication companies to invest in these and to avoid public participation in its decisions?
  • Is it logical to think that the Government should pay the different service providers of telecommunication for services in schools or public places where this could be provided through a government-owned company?

In the next post, We will not only work on your answers, but will give more arguments to feed the telecommunications debate, a debate that should be on the agenda of every government in the world.