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This Appendix will look at present information and communication technologies (ICT) in developing regions; new technologies and trends that could be important within five years; case studies that illuminate those trends; and venues and emerging opportunities that may be ripe for testing. The educational context for this discussion is equally important, but will not be documented in detail. It can be summarized by saying that in many developing countries, and especially in rural areas, public education systems are of poor quality, they frequently lack textbooks and other materials, and educational strategies often tend toward rote learning. Thus the potential of open source educational materials along with digitally based, multimedia, and interactive educational approaches to significantly improve educational opportunities—indeed, to leapfrog them from very poor to world class—is very high. Consider, too, the apparent fact that youth in developing regions find digital technology at least as appealing as do youth in developed areas. Against that potential must be set the realities of ICT and electrical infrastructures as well as policy regimes that strongly influence and constrain those infrastructures in developing countries.

This section will consider mobile phones and Internet access, for reasons that will become clearer in due course, but that can be summarized by noting the convergence of mobile phones and computers and the rapid emergence of mobile phones as the dominant ICT platform in developing countries.

The spread of wireless mobile phone networks has been especially rapid in developing regions in recent years. From a small base, the number of mobile subscribers in developing countries grew more than five-fold between 2000 and 2005 to reach nearly 1.4 billion, with rapid growth in all regions. The fastest growth was in sub-Saharan Africa, to a total of nearly 77 million. Nigeria’s subscriber base grew from 370,000 to 16.8 million during those five years, while the Philippines’ grew six-fold to 40 million. Wireless subscribers in China (334 million), India (52 million), and Brazil (66 million) together now outnumber those in either the United States or the European Union.