broadband strategies handbook.pdf - Khazar University

urban households by 2012. Under the terms of the agreement, the governmentcommitted to investing RM 2.4 billion (US$700 million) in theproject over 10 years, with Telekom Malaysia committing to covering theremaining costs.Local efforts, bottom-up networks. There are also some interesting examplesof how local efforts or bottom-up networks have resulted in thefinancing of broadband deployment. Module 4, Universal Access and Service,of the infoDev ICT Regulation Toolkit, for example, notes that theemergence of municipal broadband networks provides an additionalsource of financing from local governments for ICT service development.14 The toolkit highlights the Pirai municipal network in Brazil as asuccessful initiative that was based on the needs of the municipal authorityand included e-government, education, and public access, with a rangeof application support and development activities. The project establishednumerous broadband access nodes that allowed all local governmentoffices and most public schools, libraries, and general public access pointsto be connected. Initially, all financing was provided by the municipal government.A commercial enterprise was later established, but continues tobe funded and supported by the municipality.Local governments have also been instrumental in driving broadbanddeployments (box 2.5). A 2010 study notes that in some European countries(for example, the Netherlands and Italy) municipal involvement is the resultof incumbent carriers’ reluctance to deploy networks in areas with lesschance of investment return, increasing demand for broadband services,and a perception that broadband networks may serve to reduce the digitaldivide and stimulate economic growth (Nucciarelli, Sadowski, and Achard2010). This, the study claims, has led some European municipalities tobecome more directly involved in broadband network development.Universal service funds for broadband. In the past, many countries definedtheir universal service funds (USFs) in a way that gave priority to providingvoice telephony (traditionally provided over wireline) services to unservedor underserved regions. Recently, however, some countries have revisedtheir definitions and the scope of the funds to include broadband, mobiletelephony, or Internet access. For example, the EU and the United States areadding resources to existing rural development funds or USFs to accommodatebroadband. Some countries have turned or are considering turningbroadband provision into a universal service obligation and are reformingtheir universal service policies. Other countries are contracting commercialproviders to build the network with service obligations through aPolicy Approaches to Promoting Broadband Development 73