Private sector provision of Internet access in rural India

Abstract

In South India today, a number of ongoing projects seek to provide internet access to rural areas by combining computer, internet, and other telecommunications technologies in a profitable business model. Yet, in spite of growing interest in this work, few formal evaluations have been performed on specific projects and little progress has been made toward increasing discussion of the strengths and weakness of each. Though public, private, and non-profit funds have been in a number of different ways to stimulate rural projects of this sort, evaluations to date have tended to focus on efforts led by public and non-profit organizations. Little attention has been paid to the results of private sector investment. This analysis fills a portion of the existing information gap, examining the efforts of a major sugar cane processing plant in rural South India to provide internet access to villagers. The sugar cane plant's project is evaluated on viability of infrastructure; financial sustainability; and success in meeting the company's own social objectives. In the final analysis, the company seems poised to succeed in creating a functioning, profitable network of rural internet kiosks, however, its success at providing broad access to a diverse segment of communities is limited. Two important findings emerge from this study. First, though access to computers and the internet is still limited in absolute numbers, computer aware individuals and computer users are a demographically diverse group of individuals. An intense survey of rural households demonstrates that users of computers and the internet come from a broad range of backgrounds. Though only one-quarter of rural villagers in surveyed areas were computer aware and an even smaller seven percent actually use computers, the body of actual users was demographically diverse across variables such as gender, wealth, education, and age. Second, the private sector, while seemingly able to construct a viable infrastructure for providing computer and internet access in rural areas, only serves a limited range of individuals. The project examined here was used by only one-quarter of computer users in the local area, or less than 2% of village members in August 2001. Furthermore, while users in the region surveyed were, in general, from a broad range of backgrounds, usage at the rural private sector kiosks was decidedly unequal, serving mainly wealthy male farmers from higher castes. Potential does, however, exist for the expansion of the company's internet kiosk network in a way that will significantly broaden access, reducing the digital divide seen in this private sector initiative. The analysis therefore concludes with three recommendations for improving the project at the village (operator) level and three recommendations at the company (policy) level. At the village level, awareness and skill levels must be increased; information needs and existing use must be studied to facilitate content generation; and the kiosk model must be restructured to facilitate broader access. At the company level, a solid commitment should be made to explicit social objectives; an incentive program should be developed to encourage operators to reach out to a broader range of villagers; and strategic partnerships should be developed to increase demand and available content.