Life in developed countries has changed dramatically in the last 50 years thanks to a technology infrastructure that we have come to take for granted. Elements of this infrastructure include sanitation, water, electric power, transportation, and communications systems. The average citizen can now mail, drive, fly, and call widely and frequently with little concern for cost. Moreover, our homes are loaded with consumer products that didn't exist or were a rarity only a few decades ago. Microwave ovens, cable TVs, VCRs, wireline phones, cell phones, answering machines, fax machines and personal computers connected to the Internet are commonplace. Not only do these devices make our lives richer and more comfortable, the markets they have created have stimulated the economy beyond anything that existed in the past. The information technology market, in particular, is said to account for a third of the growth in the US economy in the past four years.
Still, while many of us are enjoying this age of plenty, vast numbers of people in third world countries, as well as in depressed areas of our own prosperous countries, are struggling to get by without even the basic needs. How will the rapid advances in information technology, which have been discussed previously in this space, affect them?
We consider access to a telephone line as a basic service. Since the Communication Act of 1934, telephone providers in the US have been required to offer ''universal service'' at affordable rates to poor and rural areas, subsidized by business and well-to-do residential subscribers. The number of telephone lines in the US is about 60 per 100 inhabitants, or a teledensity of 60%; a similar density holds in Western Europe and Japan. We are rarely far from a phone. Teledensity is closely correlated with per capita gross domestic product, although it is not clear which is the driving factor.