Low-cost information technology in developing countries: current opportunities and emerging possibilities

As its point of departure, this paper takes the view that if the digital divide between rich and poor countries is to be diminished on any significant scale, a wide range of complementary low-cost versions of information technologies will be needed. Since the available knowledge about these technologies is highly fragmented and difficult to access, however, we seek in this paper to provide policymakers not only with a description of some of the more important low-cost information technologies that are already in use, but also with an indication of where such technologies are likely to emerge in the near future.