Universal Access and The Wireless Revolution

Back in 2003 Michael L. Best from the Program in Internet & Telecom Convergence at Massachusetts Institute of Technology wrote on the then current wireless revolution and how it could effect the world if done right. This excerpt from his book, while outdated from a technological point of view contains interesting theories on where wireless was and is headed.

Best said universal access to the wireless infrastructure can make poor and rural markets profitable. There are three important critical innovations that are necessary. In order for this to happen we would need new and low-cost technologies. Also micro and small enterprises that provide services that can create value to the community while insuring that revenues stay up. In addition it needs to be supported by the public policy makers as a source of development and not a source of government revenue.

Many countries, including the US have licensed certain frequencies for business, and other use. For costs to remain low, allowing universal access to the wireless infrastructure, the signals need to transmit over unlicensed frequencies. That way small local networks will be able to provide access to the wireless infrastructure and these small networks when connected together could provide global communication and access to the internet at an affordable price. This is more important in poor areas and rural places that don’t currently have wired communications. Placing a wired structure in many of these areas would be too costly.

A good quote explaining this from Best’s book excerpt is: “Increasingly, policy experts agree that the concept of universal access should not end with basic voice services, but must also embrace value-added services, including the Internet. This is not simply because of the social and economic value of the Internet--although that would be reason enough—it is because the Internet is critical to the financial sustainability of rural access.”

In my opinion I think Best is correct. In many rural places and countries it would be almost impossible to facilitate the communications they need to thrive. The way to get this to happen quickly and at affordable rates is to let communities connect together and for now keep licensing free.