How to narrow the digital gap for rural areas?

If there is support from the state and enterprises sharing infrastructure, the digital gap between urban and rural areas can be narrowed quickly.

In the morning of July 17, 2007, the Ministry of Post and Telematics organized a workshop on science and information technology for rural areas to find solutions to quickly eliminate the digital gap between urban and rural areas.

At the workshop, Minister of Posts and Telematics Do Trung Ta said that until now, the Post and Telecommunications and Information Technology (IT) industry had invested about 2 billion USD to modernize telecom networks and services. through 100% of rural communes. In order to accelerate the development of ICT services for rural areas, the Government has launched a public telecommunications service fund to ensure the provision of services to remote areas where it is difficult to conduct pure business.

The rural-urban digital gap is growing

According to Minister Do Trung Ta, the level of universal ICT services is mainly concentrated in urban areas. While telecommunications and Internet services in major cities are rapidly approaching saturation, the development of these services in rural areas is still limited.

In particular, this difference is evident in the proportion of Internet users. According to the Vietnam Internet Network Information Center, Hanoi and Ho Chi Minh City alone account for more than 35% of the country's Internet subscribers.

Activities of commune Cultural and Post Offices (PCU-VHX) have contributed significantly to narrowing the digital gap but also have many limitations. The Vietnam Post and Telecommunications Group (VNPT) said that as of May 2007, the whole country had 7,990 real estate-VHX locations providing basic postal and telecommunications services such as voice, postal and Internet services. These real estate and cultural sites are also a 'community reading point' of some kinds of books for farmers.

However, it is not really effective to bring the Internet to these post offices. According to Mr. Nguyen Mau Lan, Vietnam Telecommunications Commission - Vietnam Post and Telecommunications Group (VNPT), among 2,000 real estate-VHX locations equipped with Internet, only a few provide ADSL high-speed Internet access service, and also is a slow speed Internet connection, so it is not effective.

Bringing ICT to rural areas: Business or public interest?

Commune cultural post offices contributed significantly to narrowing the digital gap.(Cultural Post Office of Hung Phong commune, Cao Phong district, Hoa Binh province - Photo: ICTnews .

In order to narrow the digital divide between urban and rural areas, Lan said that ' taking the Internet to rural areas should be considered as a way to stabilize the society, to bring information and knowledge to the people, rather than calculating the loss of interest. '. According to Mr. Lan, the public telecommunications service fund should have a policy of supporting high-speed Internet access (ADSL) free of charge at real estate-VHX locations nationwide, not in public areas like today. .

VNPT's representative also proposed a program to build independent access points, each of which includes a 'field-combat' low-cost computer with a touch screen (no mouse or keyboard). To encourage people to use at these access points, according to Lan, it is necessary to have a policy of providing cheap or free Internet services, developing content sites that appeal to farmers and asking for housing agencies. The country publishes administrative information online.

Meanwhile, Mr. Nguyen Manh Hung, Deputy General Director of Viettel has another view. According to Mr. Hung, in order to develop ICT services for rural areas, there must be a profitable way. Hung said the country currently has about 10 million rural households with an income of about $ 2 billion. It is estimated that each household is likely to spend about 5 USD (about 80,000 VND) for telecommunications services. According to Mr. Hung's calculations, the cost for a VSAT satellite phone is about 400,000 dong, with a cordless phone being around 200,000 dong and wireless about 100,000 dong (a month). Thus, the cost of a phone under all three technologies is not feasible for the ability of rural households to pay. The only way to make a profitable business with rural users is to make use of the mobile infrastructure to provide many services on it.

According to Mr. Hung, the best way to utilize infrastructure is to have policies to encourage businesses to share infrastructure. However, Mr. Hung said that it was advisable to use common infrastructure in markets where it was difficult to make profits. In addition, terminal costs can be significantly reduced if domestically produced. Besides, Mr. Hung suggested ' Ministry of Post and Telematics should soon license 3G to GSM mobile enterprises because WiMax technology is not yet feasible '.

Do Duy