WIRELESS LOCAL LOOP IN DEVELOPING REGIONS: IS IT TOO SOON FOR DATA? - The case of Thailand and Kenya

Wireless networks are often cited as the most economically feasible solution to the severe dearth of communications infrastructure in developing countries. In the short term, the deployment of wireless networks is indeed the optimal solution to the information infrastructure gap in developing countries. Many developing nations have embarked on this road and a loose formula of employing fixed cellular networks for local loops (in the form of wireless local loop) and satellite transmission for long distance and international communications has emerged. Yet with remarkable consistency, many countries have focused solely on the installation of voice-centric networks, seemingly oblivious to the growing pervasiveness of the Internet and other data communications. Predictably, most of these countries are poor and have economies in which the overwhelming and most pressing concern is often voice communications.