June 22, 2000

Response to a Microsoft essay that appeared on March 29, 2001, in the Washingtonpost

Over the last few months Microsoft Corporation has been running advertisements as essays on telecommunication issues in newspapers across the USA. The most recent article, "Rural, But Not Remote" was published in the Washington Post on 3/29/01.

NETO/EDSAT-Americas Responds:

There are tens of thousands of pilot and demonstration Internet projects similar to the ones cited in the Microsoft essay, "Rural, But Note Remote". They all have value and are beneficial. However, the important point of the essay is that in the United States, despite more than 50 years of installing and improving infrastructure, and more recently laying tens of thousands of miles of costly and efficient fiber lines, "95% of US rural communities and small towns still don't have access to high speed Internet, businesses may pay up to seven times more than they would in urban areas"… and in some areas people must make a long distance call in order to reach the Net". You can add to these statistics, small and large businesses moving out of metropolitan areas or opening branches outside the US, Indian Reservations, and equally important schools!

A second central issue, to paraphrase Microsoft, is that no one company, institute, organization, state or country, or one sector of society can change the communications gap growing between those that have and those that don't!

It is instructive that although Microsoft is the "big boy on the block", the essay points out that the challenge of geography and demographics makes a good case for the importance of access to communications for economic and social stability and at the same time, points out that they alone, cannot close the gap between those in poverty, illiteracy, small towns or rural areas, and those who have and can afford access to information and communication technologies.

We applaud Microsoft's identification of their limitations and the central questions. The EDSAT-Americas initiative is a cooperative partnership made up of more than one third of Latin American and Caribbean countries, the private sector, the Organization of American States, US and other countries' education institutions, and others. They are exploring how to overcome geography and demographic barriers to "even the playing field" for all; to link this hemisphere's education and health care institutions and other public services with special attention to rural, indigenous, under and densely populated communities.

Historically, democracies' officials addressed the public's right to and need for equitable access to utilities and transportation in the agricultural and industrial economies. They established public/private "authorities" or mechanisms to encourage private sector competition and growth, and respond to the public need and demand for affordable services. Transportation -by rail, road, air and water-remains the lifeline of the world's economies!

Until about ten years ago most of commerce still believed that it needed to behave like the broadcast, voice, or cable business and create its own "electronic toll roads" to deliver products and services on a global scale. It was very costly. With the advent of an open, ubiquitous, connected infrastructure called the "Internet"-a connected global transport system-- E Commerce exploded worldwide!

The time has arrived for the massive public/private education industry, with unique telecommunication demands and needs, as the main lifeline of a strong democracy and economy, to utilize the technologies-satellite, copper, fiber and software- to build an interconnected, ubiquitous, affordable transport system to provide equitable access to E- Learning and Teaching, E Public Health Services, information and other social services-the products and services of the information age-for students, teachers, classrooms and other distant education centers!

For years, US and other countries' educators and public officials believed that geography and demographics were their burdens to bear! The EDSAT-Americas' initiative is proving that there are officials who recognize that by joining together and harmonizing their resources to establish an open Electronic International Highway system for affordable access to Internet, other education and health care networks and universal services, geography and demographics need no longer determine the destiny of their people!

National Education Telecommunications Organization/Education Satellite
Email: edsatamericas@netoedsat.org