Public Internet Access Points Research Articles

Telecommunications Reform in Mexico: Regulation, Market Structure and Social Coverage

The study explores the effects on social coverage of services that will potentially be brought about as a result of Mexico's recent Telecommunications Reform. Specifically, the Reform (a) aims to introduce regulation to boost competition, and thereby bridge the market efficiency gap; (b) propose a significant shift in policy on digital inclusion, with the aim of bridging the access gap. It thus represents the most significant shake-up of the telecommunications industry in the last 20 years, ever since the privatization of public telecommunications firm Telmex (1990) and the introduction of the Federal Telecommunications Act (1995). In relation to the first of these, boosting competition, an assessment of the situation as of 2014 reveals that the Reform and its institutional embodiment in the form of a new regulatory body, the Federal Telecommunications Institute, has begun to bear fruit by way of declarations of dominant economic agents in both the telecommunications and broadcasting sectors, and the proposal of specific asymmetric regulation measures to be imposed on these economic agents. In addition, investigations are underway into illegal market concentrations in relation to the provision of certain services, with a view to issuing a declaration of significant market power in relation to the provider in question in the very near future. The telecommunication service markets in Mexico have seen a rise in their contestability, attributable to the institutional strength of the new regulatory framework. The broadcasting service markets are contestable too as a result of the Reform; he announcement that two new TV channels would enter the market, along with the “must carry, must offer” requirement, levels the playing field and ensures greater competition for the future. Unlike the previous case, which is essentially regulatory, the digital inclusion case lies in investment in construction, in the expansion of infrastructure and in the human capital needed to operate this infrastructure and guarantee the benefits of digital inclusion. With regard to the “Mexico Connected” program, an increase of approximately 500% is reported in the number of public Internet access points in public places, but there is a lack of information on the extent to which these access points are equipped with the necessary infrastructure for developing digital skills that would foster the adoption of such technologies and trigger a process of economic development.

Public Internet access points (PIAPs) and their social impact: a case study from Turkey

Building public Internet access points (PIAPs) is a significant contribution of governments towards achieving an information society. While many developing countries are investing great amounts to establish PIAPs today, people may not use PIAPs effectively. Yet, the successful implementation of PIAPs is the result of citizens' acceptance to use this opportunity. Hence, based on the Diffusion of Innovation Model, this study aims to detect the determinants of behavioural intention to use PIAPs. Essential data were collected from 3477 users of BELNET PIAPs established by the municipality of Istanbul in Turkey. We found that observability, compatibility and relative advantage all positively impact the intention to use PIAPs. The results reveal academic and practical implications for the future development and implementation of PIAPs.

An Analysis of Public Internet Access Points (PIAPs)

The purpose of this paper is to analyze Public Internet Access Points (PIAPs) established by 17 different initiatives. Analysis focuses on variety of PIAP related issues mainly under operational, management and financing headings. The factors affecting sustainability of PIAPs, problems causing PIAPs to not to operate effectively are also dealt with this paper. The principle value of this paper lies in creating the understanding of trends to establish PIAPs and provide guides for their operation in an effective way. This has been accomplished by performing a comprehensive analysis and obtaining general conclusions based on analysis of 17 different PIAP cases.

INCLUSÃO DIGITAL EM TELECENTROS E LAN HOUSES: AS NOVAS DINÂMICAS ESPACIAIS DECORRENTES DOS CENTROS PÚBLICOS DE ACESSO À INTERNET NA PERIFERIA DE PORTO ALEGRE/RS

A Internet tem proporcionado uma quantidade significativa de transformações na sociedade e, conseqüentemente, no espaço geográfico. No presente trabalho, procuramos enfocar nossa análise na nova forma de exclusão social decorrente da falta ou da precariedade no acesso à Internet: a exclusão digital. Ao mesmo tempo, analisamos se efetivamente ocorre o processo de inclusão digital nos centros públicos de acesso à Internet e quais são as dinâmicas que emergem a partir desses locais, tomando, como recorte espacial, o município de Porto Alegre, principalmente a regiões Norte e Eixo Baltazar. Essa pesquisa demonstrou um panorama atual dos impactos das Tecnologias de Informação e Comunicação e como as mesmas alteram algumas dinâmicas espaciais. Esses centros, sejam eles gratuitos ou pagos, atendem principalmente às camadas da população que não possuem pleno ingresso ao uso de computadores. Os dados obtidos na pesquisa demonstram que, embora haja uma diferença em termos de perfil socioeconômico entre usuários de centros de acesso, existem muitas semelhanças nos usos e na importância adquirida pela Internet para os mesmos. Ao mesmo tempo, foi possível constatar que os centros públicos representam apenas uma entre outras possibilidades de entrada, fato que evidencia uma maior facilidade de obter acesso à Internet atualmente, mesmo que a posse de um computador ainda esteja restrita a uma minoria da população brasileira. As políticas públicas de inclusão digital continuam sendo importantes para o aumento da acessibilidade.Palavras-chave: Centros públicos de acesso à Internet, Inclusão Digital, Internet. Ciberespaço, Porto Alegre.

Responsibility Rolls Down: Public Libraries and the Social and Policy Obligations of Ensuring Access to E-government and Government Information

Access to government information has been considered an essential element of democracy since the foundation of the American republic. Over time, the amount of government information produced has increased significantly, and the rise of e-government has made access to online government information, communication, and services equally vital to participation in society and interaction with governments. However, the outlets of free public access to government information and e-government have constricted over time, leaving public libraries as one of the only free public Internet access points in most communities. As a result, public libraries serve as a social guarantor of access to and assistance with government information and e-government services. This article first discusses the historical evolution of the means of access to government information and changes over time in responsibilities in providing such access. After exploring the interrelationships between government information and e-government, the article then details the development of the role of public libraries as guarantors of e-government access. Finally, the article examines the impacts of policy on e-government access in libraries, leading to a set of recommendations and conclusions to support the vital library roles related to e-government.

Brest, une ville apprenante. La mutation d'une ville-port militaire

Thanh Nghiem Brest, a learning city Brest is one of the first French cities to provide Internet access to all interested residents. Setting up PAPIs (public Internet access points) has facilitated social appropriation of new technologies.

Public internet access revisited

In recent years the Australian government has dedicated considerable project funds to establish public Internet access points in rural and regional communities. Drawing on data from a major Australian study of the social and economic impact of new technologies on rural areas, this paper explores some of the difficulties rural communities have faced in setting up public access points and sustaining them beyond their project funding. Of particular concern is the way that economic sustainability has been positioned as a measure of the success of such ventures. Government funding has been allocated on the basis of these rural public access points becoming economically self-sustaining. This is problematic on a number of counts. It is therefore argued that these public access points should be reconceptualised as essential community infrastructure like schools and libraries, rather than potential economic enterprises.

A composable framework for secure multi-modal access to internet services from Post-PC devices

The Post-PC revolution is bringing information access to a wide range of devices beyond the desktop, such as public kiosks, and mobile devices like cellular telephones, PDAs, and voice based vehicle telematics. However, existing deployed Internet services are geared toward the secure rich interface of private desktop computers. We propose the use of an infrastructure-based secure proxy architecture to bridge the gap between the capabilities of Post-PC devices and the requirements of Internet services. By combining generic content and security transformation functions with service-specific rules, the architecture decouples device capabilities from service requirements and simplifies the addition of new devices and services. Security and protocol specifics are abstracted into reusable components. Additionally, the architecture offers the novel ability to deal with untrusted public Internet access points by providing fine-grain control over the content and functionality exposed to the end device, as well as support for using trusted and untrusted devices in tandem. Adding support for a deployed Internet service requires a few hundred lines of scraping scripts. Similarly, adding support for a new device requires a few hundred lines of stylesheets for the device format. The average latency added by proxy transformations is around three seconds in our unoptimized Java implementation.