Telecenters

Telecenters (or telekiosks) are small offices or centers that provide Internet access. These centers are usually located in rural areas. Thus, they are part of an effort to combat the digital divide, particularly in developing countries, where personal computers may be unaffordable and cybercafés are located in faraway cities. For hundreds of millions of people around the world, telecenters form their first segue into cyberspace. Telecenters differ from cybercafés, which are invariably privately owned, are concentrated in cities, and offer non-information-related services (see Figure 1). Telecenters come in a variety of sizes and degrees of sophistication and operate on a variety of business models: Some are publicly owned and operated; others are purely private entities; yet others are run by public-private partnerships; and nongovernmental organizations ...