Policy Post 6.09 | Bridging the Digital Divide Globally

CDT POLICY POST Volume 6, Number 9 April 25, 2000

A BRIEFING ON PUBLIC POLICY ISSUES AFFECTING CIVIL LIBERTIES ONLINE
from
THE CENTER FOR DEMOCRACY AND TECHNOLOGY

CONTENTS:

(1) CDT Report Surveys Internet Access in Central and Eastern Europe
(2) Summary of Conclusions - Promoting Wider and Affordable Access
(3) Developing the Policy Framework for Bridging the Digital Divide

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(1) CDT REPORT SURVEYS INTERNET ACCESS IN CENTRAL AND EASTERN EUROPE

CDT has issued an expanded and updated version of its report, "Bridging the Digital Divide: Internet Access in Central & Eastern Europe." The report addresses one of the most fundamental Internet policy issues -- the challenge of making the Internet widely available and affordable. The democratizing and user empowerment potential of this medium will never be realized if the Internet in practice is used by only a few.

This is a problem faced around the world. In every region, progress is being made as governments, commercial entities, non-profits and grant-making bodies strive to expand Internet connectivity. However, there are concerns that the "digital divide" is growing as the pace of change accelerates and as many countries continue to maintain monopolistic, regulatory policies that stifle expansion of service.

The CDT report, supported by a grant from the Open Society Institute and prepared for the Global Internet Liberty Campaign, is a follow-up to a regional conference on Internet freedom that CDT co-sponsored in Budapest, Hungary in September 1998.

The report is available online at http://www.cdt.org/international/ceeaccess/ in both HTML and PDF versions.

Hardcopies may be obtained via regular mail from jdempsey@cdt.org or dkolb@cdt.org.

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(2) SUMMARY OF CONCLUSIONS - PROMOTING WIDER AND AFFORDABLE ACCESS

While the report focuses on the Central and Eastern European (CEE) region, its findings and conclusions have broader relevance to the growing debate over the digital divide:

Internet usage was growing throughout the region, but remained very low compared to Western Europe. Estimates of users ranged from a high of 500 per 10,000 in Slovenia to less than 1 per 10,000 in Belarus and Moldova. While Russia had at least 185,000 hosts (essentially, domain names ending in .ru) as of December 1999, Finland, a country with 1/30th the population, had over twice that many.
A major barrier to Internet usage in many countries is the poor state of the underlying telecommunications infrastructure. Most people, particularly residential users and NGOs, currently are dependent on telephone dial-up connections to the Internet. Throughout the CEE region, teledensity rates are low, service quality is often poor, and there are long waiting lists for installation of new telephone lines.
A second major barrier to Internet usage is the practice of per-minute charges for local calls, which makes connection time prohibitively expensive for many.
In much of Central and Eastern Europe, due to the influence of the European Union ("EU"), telecommunications policy is focused on privatization and competition. These are necessary but not sufficient conditions for the expansion of access to both basic telecommunications and Internet services. Much more needs to be done to open up the telecomm and Internet markets to true competition.
Countries seeking to join the EU must commit to universal service. This is an important lever over national governments, but so far has not been reflected in concrete definitions of universal service or "affordability." Under EU directives, the concept of universal service has been extended to Internet access.
Given the rapid technological changes that are afoot and the global boom in Internet development, there is an urgent need for the EU and other international and regional bodies to adopt more effective policies to promote affordable access to non-commercial users.
A range of alternative access technologies, including wireless, fixed wireless, satellite and cable modem, hold the promise of overcoming landline telephone infrastructure deficiencies.

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(3) DEVELOPING THE POLICY FRAMEWORK FOR BRIDGING THE DIGITAL DIVIDE

There is growing interest in addressing the digital divide. President Clinton recently announced initiatives to close the digital gap domestically. Internationally, the issue is also receiving attention:

The upcoming summit of the G-8 leaders, scheduled for July 21 in Okinawa, is expected to focus on the digital economy and could lead to increased commitments by the developed nations to help avert a global digital divide.
Last November, the European Union launched a process to develop a future regulatory framework for electronic communications and associated services. Issues to be addressed include the digital divide and universal service. http://europa.eu.int/comm/information_society/policy/telecom/index_en.htm Erkki Liikanen, the EU Commissioner for Enterprise and Information Society, has stated that his priorities include lowering prices for Internet access and opening up competition in the local loop.
Earlier this year, the United Nation's annual Human Development Report focused on the problem of Internet access and exclusion, noting how communications technologies play increasingly vital roles in economic development, education, health care, and governance. http://www.umdp.org/hdro/report.html On April 3, the UN Secretary General issued his "Millennium Report," in which he noted that the Internet offers an unprecedented chance for developing countries to "leapfrog" earlier stages of development and urged action to maximize access to new information networks. http://www.un.org/millennium/sg/report/

CDT believes that a key to Internet development and realization of the goals of wide, affordable service is the adoption of legal frameworks that support an open, competitive, and decentralized Internet. In November 1996, at an international meeting in Brussels sponsored by the Open Society Institute, CDT and other Internet advocates developed a set of Open Internet Policy Principles that remain a useful outline for developing Internet policies at the national and international levels: http://www.soros.org/principles.html

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Detailed information about online civil liberties issues may be found at http://www.cdt.org/.

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