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4. Universal Access 4. UNIVERSAL ACCESS 4. UNIVERSAL ACCESS niversal service is a concept that has increasingly This chapter traces the shift in focus from individual become focused upon connection of individual service to servicing a wider base of the population; from householdsU to the public telephone network. The a telephone in every household to community access. objective of universal service has come to be equated Section 4.1 examines the ongoing redefinition of universal with a telephone in every household. In most service. Section 4.2 looks at the status of universal service developed countries, this objective has come close to in developing countries. Finally, Section 4.3 examines being achieved and those families who do not have a the case for transitional objectives and provides an telephone are few in number: typically those in remote account of recent universal access strategies. areas or inner cities, the very poor or those who, by choice or by misfortune are without a private telephone service. 4.1 Universal service: a concept in transition In contrast, few developing countries have been successful in achieving universal service. This is not The concept of universal service has gone through surprising, given that the proportion of those close to, several different incarnations over the past 90 years. or below the poverty line is far greater.1 Consequently, As applied to telecommunications, the phrase was first policies for access to communications in developing brought into use in 1907 by Theodore Vail, President countries have a vastly different, if no less urgent, of AT&T. Vails One System, One Policy, Universal target audience. The objective of universal service in Service slogan had little to do with contemporary developing countries therefore requires a different notions of universal service but resulted from interpretation. competition between the Bell System and a range of independent service providers. Vail advocated that In recent years, developing countries have begun to Bell should become the sole US telephone service implement policies more in tune with local economic, provider to achieve widespread geographic access. demographic, social and geographic circumstances. This, he argued, was preferable to the world of Underlying the various policy approaches is a common competing island networks which had emerged across 2 notion of universal access. The concept of universal the United States in the first decade of the century. access is that everyone, at home or at work, should be within a reasonable distance of a telephone. Defining a While Vail came close to achieving his objective as reasonable distance, of course, is another matter: it the Bell System consolidated its ownership of depends upon the coverage of the telephone network, telephone service, historians point out that the period the geography of the country, the density of the of competition between 1895 and 1920 was significant population and the spread of habitations in the urban or in boosting network growth across much of the United rural environment. This diversity has been reflected in a States (Figure 4.1, left chart).3 Moreover, regulations range of innovative policies and platforms: from the use sought by the Bell system which were introduced after of payphones to public call offices to community 1920 and formalized in the 1934 Communications Act, telecentres. were focused upon the development of a single 61 WORLD TELECOMMUNICATION DEVELOPMENT REPORT 1998 Figure 4.1: Universal service in the United States Telephones per 100 inhabitants, 1890-1920 and percentage of households with a telephone, 1920-1996, United States 8QLWHGÃ6WDWHVÃ7HOHSKRQHVÃSHUÃÃLQKDELWDQWV 8QLWHGÃ6WDWHVÃ3HUFHQWDJHÃRIÃKRXVHKROGVÃZLWKÃDÃ WHOHSKRQH 14 12.65 100% 93.9% 12 80% 10 8 60% 6 40% 4 20% 2 - 0% 1890 1900 1910 1920 1920 1930 1940 1950 1960 1970 1980 1990 1996 Source: United States Federal Communications Commission (FCC). integrated national network and were not directly sectors of Western Europe, Japan, Australia and New linked to a policy of promoting household telephone Zealand. There was rarely explicit mention of penetration. The concept of universal service as a universal service in policy statements. Instead, telephone in every home, underpinned by policies to government operators strived to expand network make service affordable for residential and rural access as part of their public service mission. It was subscribers did not emerge until the mid-1960sby only after high levels of household penetration had which time widespread household penetration had been achieved that these countries began to liberalize already been attained (Figure 4.1, right chart). their telecommunication service market (Figure 4.2). It has been liberalizationand the attendant fear that the This concept of universal service was also only marginalized in society might be excludedthat has adopted relatively recently in the telecommunication focused attention upon the concept of universal service.4 Figure 4.2: Universal service in the developed world Percentage of households with a telephone, selected developed countries 3HUFHQWDJHÃRIÃKRXVHKROGVÃZLWKÃDÃWHOHSKRQH 3HUFHQWDJHÃRIÃKRXVHKROGVÃZLWKÃDÃWHOHSKRQH 100% 100% Canada Canada USA 80% France 60% Australia Japan Australia 95% 40% USA UK France 20% UK Japan 0% 90% 1960 1970 1980 1990 1996 1990 1991 1992 1993 1994 1995 1996 Source: ITU World Telecommunication Indicators Database. 62 4. UNIVERSAL ACCESS Table 4.1: General agreement: available, accessible and affordable Universal service definitions, selected countries Country Definition Source Australia The USO is a legislative requirement designed to ensure A New Regulator for the Industry that every Australian citizen has access, on an equitable The Australian Communications basis, to a standard telephone service, pay-phone and Authority carriage services. 1997 Canada to render reliable and affordable telecommunications Telecommunications Act services of high quality accessible to Canadians in both 1993 urban and rural areas in all regions of Canada France Universal service for telecommunications is the supply to Law of 26 July 1996 on all of a quality telephone service on all the territory at an telecommunications regulations affordable price. United States to make available, so far as possible, to all the people of The Purpose of United States the United States without discrimination on the basis of Communications Law as amended by race, color, religion, national origin, or sex a rapid, the Telecommunications Act of 1996 efficient, nation-wide, and world-wide wire and radio communication service with adequate facilities at reasonable charges... Source: ITU, adapted from Sources shown above. Italics added. Today, there is a general consensus among policies more recently, there are three points to developed countries about what constitutes consider: universal service (see Table 4.1):5 (i) for developed countries, the articulation of • Availability. There should be nationwide detailed universal service policies did not come coverage of telephone service, wherever and about until household telephone penetration was whenever required; already well on the way to universal levels; • Accessibility. Users should be treated alike; (ii) in developed countries, policies have been there should be non-discrimination in terms aimed at the few without telephone service of price, service and quality, irrespective of rather than the majority of the population geographical location or race, sex, religion; which already have it; and • Affordability. Telephone service should be (iii) the achievement of universal service priced so that most users can afford it. (household penetration in excess of 90 per cent) in most developed countries has only From the perspective of developing countries occurred relatively recentlyafter more than establishing and pursuing universal service 90 years of network development (Table 4.2). 63 WORLD TELECOMMUNICATION DEVELOPMENT REPORT 1998 Table 4.2: The universally served Economies with greater than 90 per cent of households with telephones, 1996 Percent of Year when 90% Main telephone Persons per households with household telephone lines per 100 household telephone penetration reached inhabitants DEVELOPED ECONOMIES North America 1 Canada 2.7 98.7 1971 60.3 2 United States 2.6 93.9 1970 64.0 Asia-Pacific 3 Australia 2.7 96.8 1986 50.1 4 Japan 2.8 96.1 1989 48.9 5 New Zealand 2.9 96.0 1976 49.9 Europe EU 6 Austria 2.6 90.0 1995 46.6 7 Belgium 2.5 92.0 1994 46.5 8 Denmark 2.3 1982 61.8 9 Finland 2.2 90.0 1987 54.9 10 France 2.5 97.0 1985 56.4 11 Germany 2.2 94.7 1995 53.8 12 Greece 2.8 98.1 1993 50.9 13 Italy 2.7 97.5 1992 44.0 14 Luxembourg 2.7 1989 59.3 15 Netherlands 2.4 96.5 1990 54.3 16 Spain 3.2 94.7 1994 39.2 17 Sweden 2.2 1975 68.2 18 UK 2.5 91.1 1994 52.8 Other Europe 19 Iceland 2.8 1985 57.3 20 Norway 2.4 97.6 1986 55.7 21 Switzerland 2.1 1990 64.3 DEVELOPING ECONOMIES 1 Bahrain 6.6 1992 24.1 2 Brunei 5.7 1993 26.3 3 Cyprus 3.6 1990 48.5 4 Hongkong 3.3 1986 54.7 5 Israel 3.5 95.0 1989 44.6 6 Korea (Rep.) 3.4 95.2 1990 43.0 7 Kuwait 7.6 1993 23.2 8 Macau 3.8 1992 36.7 9 Malta 3.2 1987 48.4 10 Qatar 7.0 1983 23.9 11 Singapore 3.9 1983 51.3 12 Taiwan-China 3.7 1990 46.6 13 UAE 5.7 93.5 1995 30.2 Note: Economies with populations of more than 200000 inhabitants. Economies with less than 200000 inhabitants that have reached more than 90 per cent household telephone penetration are: Andorra, Bermuda, Channel Islands, Cook Islands, Faeroe Islands, Falkland/ Malvinas Islands, Gibraltar, Liechtenstein, Monaco and San Marino. = Residential main telephone lines per 100 households. Derived by dividing the number of residential main telephone lines by the number of households.
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