My first reaction is that profit is essential for sustainabibility. Despite the different approaches taken to development, we have to recognize that sustainable growth will only come when people are assimilated into markets, where they can sell their capabilities (skills) and goods, for profit.
The same applies to ICTs, just as a household has to spend to keep afloat, the ICT service provider needs to spend on bandwidth, equipment etc., and therefore as such, profit is the only way. The large number of subsidized ICT projects in my opinion fail because they take the implicit assumption that ICTs are a special service, but they are not and in fact they should be considered another factor of production such as land or capital. The focus should be in creating a market for information, which as you note from the case in Nepal, if properly done can be pretty successful, you just need to market the right product. In my opinion, the other option to sustainability, though far more uncertain, is government funding. Governments should realize ICTs are becoming more and more important enablers of welfare and the economy, and should therefore provide them in the same way they provide agriculture extension services, or business support services. However, given that most governments in the developing world have cut support to these traditional areas, which are more accepted as needs, the possibilities of government funding of ICTs is lower, so I have to conclude profit is essential. While you may argue that companies will focus on the middle and upper markets, profit motive will in the long run force them to move 'down market'. Here in Kenya, the cell phone providers were initially elitist with expensive services, but as the elite market was filled up, services more accessible to poor people have been developed to maintain the high growth rates experienced at first. The challenge then is to make the private sector invest in the poor's access. One way is to channel funds currently used for subsidy in the development of capital funds tied exclusively to the development of pro-poor access. Regards, Kamwati ------------ This DOT-COM Discussion is funded by USAID's dot-ORG Cooperative Agreement with AED, in partnership with World Resources Institute's Digital Dividend Project, and hosted by GKD. http://www.dot-com-alliance.org and http://www.digitaldividend.org provide more information. To post a message, send it to: <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> To subscribe or unsubscribe, send a message to: <[EMAIL PROTECTED]>. In the 1st line of the message type: subscribe gkd OR type: unsubscribe gkd Archives of previous GKD messages can be found at: <http://www.dot-com-alliance.org/archive.html>
