Community-based Networks and Innovative Technologies: New ...

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Rural Telephony Cooperatives in Poland: WIST and Tyczyn3. To establish thriving cooperatives, a favourable legal environment must be created.Official policy should support and promote cooperative business models in providingtelecommunications services.4. Public officials, local and national political leaders should be provided with trainingand on-site visits. Policy makers should be made cognizant of all the benefits ofmulti-provider system and cooperative models.5. Cooperative employees, managers and other staff, should be assisted both in legislativeand technical issues, such as interconnection and revenue sharing agreements, andin start-up and on-going management and technical problems.6. The Polish cooperative experience does not offer a universal solution for every ruralcommunity. Changing telecommunications technology and varying business conditionsmean that no single model of cooperative development works in all cases. Inthis case local conditions stipulated particular project design and implementation strategy.WIST and Tyczyn were formed under favourable conditions such as the existenceof village telephone committees, strong local and national political leadership, facilitatinglegal environment, adequate financing and technical external assistance. Ineach development situation, it is critical to carefully assess the conditions, and to deployresources and strategy that respond to these. Different models of cooperative/community-basedtelecommunications systems and resources should be explored,developed and implemented.In addition to variants of U.S.-style cooperatives (as in Poland), other approaches are:■■■Second-level cooperatives in which businesses and communities are member-owners;Community-based, single use (e.g., business-oriented) telecentres;Mixed-use community-based telecentres (e.g., that provide business-oriented servicesand whose resources are also available to address other community needs, suchas health).A few concluding words.Finding the right people to devote their skills and energies to the enterprise is the singlemost important factor in the success of local telecommunication cooperatives. This principleapplies to local economic development in general since motivated and active people,especially local residents interested in their own welfare, form the basis for success.“People are everything and money will be found”.1 This Report draws heavily on, and was inspired by, an NTCA Report of August 2003: CooperativeDevelopment Case Studies: WIST and Tyczyn Telecommunications Cooperatives in Poland. Seewww.ntca.org78
Case Study 2:Community TelecommunicationCooperatives in Argentina:The case of TELPINSusana Finquelievich & Graciela KisilevskyLINKSReport SummaryLocated in the south-east of the province of Buenos Aires, the city of Pinamar was conceivedas a tourism development project. Between 1949 and 1953, groups of Italianimmigrants settled in Pinamar. They carried with them a strong community conscience,as well as the European experience of cooperative organisations. As Pinamar developedinto a fashionable seaside city, there was an urgent need for communication to supportthe growing tourism industry. In 1962, a group of 82 neighbors, created the PinamarTelephone Cooperative (Cooperativa Telefónica de Pinamar, TELPIN Ltda.), one of thefirst telephone service cooperatives in Argentina. The cooperative’s goal is to providequality telecommunications services, without losing its community sense.As of late 2004, TELPIN has approximately 18,000 lines installed and 720 digital linkswith the rest of the world. 1 Its internet service, TELPINet, was launched in 1998 and nowTELPIN has 1,120 broadband connections and 3,500 area dial-up connections. 50 ofthe broadband connections are offered free of charge to Pinamar Schools, the publiclibrary, the volunteer fire department and other community institutions. Two hundred andtwenty dial-up connections are also provided free to individuals with physical impairments.Revenue from telecommunication services, including the dramatic increase in national andinternational long-distance revenue during the tourist season, generate benefits which areinvested in improved services or returned to shareholders/community members as discounts(e.g. TELPIN’s subscribers do not pay subscription fees during the winter).TELPIN is considered the most successful and innovative telecommunications cooperativein Argentina. A number of factors have been key to its success:■the presence of local champions willing to offer their expertise and their knowledge;79
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