A brief summary of wireless IP related activities for rural development at the ITU Telecommunication Development Bureau and their implications for influencing widespread adoption of telemedicine services in rural and remote areas

This paper provides an overview of wireless IP related activities at the ITU-D in regard to rural development and the successful adoption of strategically important e-services such as telemedicine. The paper follows the concept evolution of applying wireless IP applications for rural development highlighted in the original ITU-D´s Focus Group 7 activities in the late 1990´s; provides background on current wireless IP pilot project development for rural and remote regions and concludes with summarized findings from the 2003 analysis of the replies to the questionnaire issued by the ITU-D Study Group 2 Question 10 team examining communications for rural and remote areas and the implications of these findings to the potentially pivotal role that telemedicine applications can play in rural community adoption of e-services and rural ITC developments.