ABSTRACT
In terms of accessing, delivering, and exchanging information in digital forms, a substantial gap has developed between rich and poor nations. Mobile telecommunications networks have been touted as ‘leapfrogging alternatives’ that may allow the technologically disadvantaged segments of the world to close or at least narrow the ‘digital divide’ that separates them from the information rich. Thus, according to the International Labour Organization (ILO 2001):
Acceleration of development can occur through the leapfrogging potentials inherent in the technologies, where leapfrogging is defined as the ability to bypass earlier investments in the time or cost of development. Leapfrogging has first of all a technological foundation: through wireless applications, developing countries can bypass more costly and time-consuming investments in fixed-wire telecom infrastructures.
