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Communication gap between rich and poor
rising, U.N. agency reports


GENEVA (March 22, 1998 8:18 p.m. EST http://www.nando.net) -- Nearly
two-thirds of the world's households lack telephones and the gap in
access to phones between industrialized and developing countries
remains huge, the U.N. telecommunications agency said Monday.

That casts strong doubt on the long-standing objective of putting
"virtually
the whole of mankind within easy reach of a telephone" by early next
century, the International Telecommunication Union said.

"While progress has been made, as the 20th century draws to a close,
there remain vast differences in access to telecommunications in
different
parts of the world," the agency said in its annual World
Telecommunication
Development Report released Monday.

Cost is the major obstacle, the report said.

The majority of phone connections are in 23 industrialized countries,
where almost all homes have service, it said. Only 16 percent of people
in
the rest of the world have phones, according to 1996 figures, the latest
available.

While Monaco has 99 lines per 100 people, Cambodia has less than one
line per 1,000 people.

The report said opening telecommunications to competition would be the
best way to cut costs and provide more lines.

The report's "modest goals" for the year 2010 are for developing
countries
to have 10 telephone lines for every 100 inhabitants, with more than
half
their households served. Poorer countries should set a target of 5 lines
per 100 citizens with 20 percent of households covered.

Mobile cellular phones have had "mixed success" in increasing access
outside the developed world, the report said.

But cheaper, fixed, radio-based local services are proving popular and
effective in some developing countries, it said.

And global satellite systems being deployed will make it possible "to
make
and receive calls via mobile handsets from virtually anywhere in the
world,"
the report said.

But the predicted high cost "will initially restrict their use to the
business
community," it said.

The report was based on data supplied by governments, telephone
companies and regulators.


Copyright © 1998 Nando.net
Copyright © 1998 The Associated Press

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Vera Britto
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............................................................................
Le Bret: Si tu laissais un peu ton ame mousquetaire, la fortune et la
gloire...  Cyrano:  Et que faudrait-il faire? Chercher un protecteur
puissant, prendre un patron, et, comme un lierre obscur que circonvient
un tronc et s'en fait un tuteur en lui lechant l'ecorce, grimper par
ruse au lieu de s'elever par force? Non, merci! Non, merci! Non, merci!
Mais... chanter, rever, rire, passer, etre seul, etre libre... oui.
                                  "Cyrano de Bergerac" - Edmond Rostand