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DOI: 10.1355/ae25-2j ICT Infrastructure in Emerging Asia: Policy and Regulatory Roadblocks. Edited by Rohan Samarajiva and Ayesha Zainudeen. New Delhi: Sage Publications India; Ottawa: International Development Research Centre, 2008. Pp. 333.
Drawing on research carried out by LirneASIA, an information and communication technology policy and regulation capacity organization active in the Asia-Pacific, the book sets out to explore the principal challenges to increasing access to telecommunications in South and Southeast Asia. Containing contributions from a range of télécoms experts and industry players, it refers to data and case studies from: Bangladesh, Indonesia, India, Sri Lanka, and Nepal.
Notwithstanding the technical language, the questions the book poses and the arguments it puts forward will be of interest not just to télécoms policy-makers, regulators, and policy-makers, but also a wider readership that is interested in the policy-making process, the effects of technology, and the role of institutions in shaping outcomes.
Starting from the contention that connectivity, defined as "the opportunity to engage in electronically-mediated communication, information retrieval . . . and publication" is positive, the book then looks at what technological and regulatory barriers impede greater access to telecommunications services. Influenced by the work of Mohamed Yunus and C. K. Prahalad, the book is particularly interested in exploring what demands and needs consumers from the poorest sections of society, termed the Bottom of the Pyramid (BOP), have insofar as télécoms services. In particular, the book seeks to understand why access has not expanded more quickly in the region given liberalization of the télécoms sector, falling costs associated with economies of scale and, most importantly, huge unmet demand.
The book is structured in four parts, each looking at a different aspect of the télécoms sector and containing specific questions.
The first section, "Demand at the Bottom of the Pyramid", seeks to uncover what BOP consumers want with regards to télécoms services by drawing on extensive primary data gathered in Sri Lanka and India. The first chapter by Zainudeen looks at the choices made by BOP consumers between...