Giving a voice to the poor : rural telephones and economic development in Peru

Although the current literature on technology and development has mainly focused on the Internet, I focus on a case where an "old" technology can be more beneficial and appropriate. In 1993, the Peruvian Government created the Telecommunications Investment Fund - FITEL, a fund aimed at providing subsidies to the private sector so that they would provide telecommunication services to remote and poor communities. FITEL's rural public telephone projects have had tremendous impacts on isolated and poor rural communities, providing an increase in welfare. The FITEL model has been replicated in many countries around the world as it has been considered successful by the literature and the development organizations. However, FITEL has also have drawn much criticism due to many problems that were unforeseen at the design phase of the projects. In this thesis we analyze how the political environment, the institutional arrangements, and the different actors affected the outcomes of the projects, providing some lessons to policy makers, especially those working on developing projects involving technology.

Department dc:contributor.department

Massachusetts Institute of Technology. Dept. of Urban Studies and Planning.

Grantor dc:publisher

Massachusetts Institute of Technology

Year dc:date.issued

2008

Author dc:creator

• Paredes Sadler, Miguel

Advisor dc:contributor.advisor

• Judith Tendler.

• Urban Studies and Planning.
• Technology and Policy Program.

Statement dc:rights

• M.I.T. theses are protected by copyright. They may be viewed from this source for any purpose, but reproduction or distribution in any format is prohibited without written permission. See provided URL for inquiries about permission.

Licence dc:rights.uri

• http://dspace.mit.edu/handle/1721.1/7582

Language dc:language.iso

eng

Handle dc:identifier.uri

http://hdl.handle.net/1721.1/45366

OAI identifier oai:identifier

oai:dspace.mit.edu:1721.1/45366