Abstract

This study looked at two research questions: Are economically developing countries spending comparable percentage of their budget, compared to industrialized nations, on telecommunication investment? What telecommunication investment framework should economically developing countries use to spur economic activities? We used annual telecommunication investment as percent of Gross Domestic Product as a surrogate for investment budget allocation. Ten year data from the 2005 World Telecommunication Indicator Database by ITU were used for analysis. Our finding indicates that the percentage of GDP allocation by economically developing countries is comparable, in many cases higher, than industrialized nations. This paper argues that even after spending a higher proportion of their GDP economically developing countries are not investing enough money to realize economic benefits that derive from telecommunication investment. We propose a new framework, community focused network investment instead of individual focused network investment, to spur economic activities in economically developing countries.

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