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Comparing Urban and Rural Telecenters Costs
Author(s) -
Shakeel Hani,
Best Michael,
Miller Bruno,
Weber Sam
Publication year - 2001
Publication title -
the electronic journal of information systems in developing countries
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Journals
SCImago Journal Rank - 0.41
H-Index - 18
ISSN - 1681-4835
DOI - 10.1002/j.1681-4835.2001.tb00025.x
Subject(s) - business , rural area , economic growth , environmental economics , environmental planning , geography , economics , political science , law
If deployed in both urban and rural areas, telecenters can decrease the gap in social services and economic opportunities that often exist between the two. However, establishing and operating rural telecenters is perceived to be more costly than urban ones. This paper presents a cost comparison of establishing urban and rural telecenter in Costa Rica. It shows that telecenter operations in rural areas disconnected from the power and telecommunication grids may not be significantly more expensive than those of an urban telecenter. Utilization of stand‐alone communication and power systems, combined with low‐power equipment can bring rural operating costs within range of those of a typical urban telecenter. The analysis is based on the Little Intelligent Communities (LINCOS) telecenter project, an initiative of the Foundation for Sustainable Development of Costa Rica.