WHO WILL WIN THE INTERNET CONTRACT?

Feb 26, 2011 Features / Columnists, Peeping Tom

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The government should keep the one laptop per family project simple. Right now there are two many complications involved which can lead to a loss of public confidence.
If the intention of the project is to ensure that every family in the country has a laptop, then the government should go about the process with this objective in mind. It should take its time in establishing a means-test for recipients and forget about wanting those benefiting to repay for the instrument through community service. It should also remove the training aspect of the project.
To ask recipients to repay for stolen or damaged computers will defeat the entire purpose of the project which has already been riddled with controversy over a gift of computers made to the project by a Chinese firm.
If a poor family believes that it would be liable to a fine of US$400 to replace a computer that costs far less than that, the poor family is not going to want to receive that computer because where will that poor family find US$400 to replace that computer if it is lost or stolen or damaged?
So instead of accepting the computer, those eligible may very well decide that it better not to have anything to do with the laptop project since this have the potential of leaving them indebted and broke.
There is also no need for any training component in this project. While there are many persons who are not computer literate, it does not take too much for anyone to become familiar with the computer.
Most computers are now easy to operate and there are prompts that can help you to troubleshoot problems. Therefore, instead of delaying the distribution further because of the need for training, the computers should be distributed and the beneficiaries will find a way of learning how to use the computers.
Having to recruit computer schools to provide training will only put money into the hands of these schools. These sums can instead be used to purchase additional computers for the project to ensure that no eligible person get left off the list.
This project will in the end benefit a small clique more than it will the ordinary citizen. Since the laptops will be distributed internet-ready, it means that a service provider will have to be identified. And therefore there will have to be tenders for this aspect.  With some 90,000 computers to be distributed, it means that some internet firm will immediately gain control of the internet market in Guyana.
Since we are referring to 90,000 computers which is about the maximum market internet connectivity market size in Guyana, it means that one company will automatically control the entire internet market in Guyana and put all the other service providers out of business. This is called predatory capitalism.  One company is going to eventually control the entire internet market in Guyana.
With a new cable being strung from Crabwood Creeek to Lethem, it means that the cost of internet connectivity will be lower for all providers but since one company is likely to enjoy the entire market share, the other service providers are not going to benefit from the lower cost of bandwidth which we have been hearing so much about.
This one laptop per family project is therefore not principally about the small man. True, the small man will benefit. A computer in every home will make a big difference. It will help make a big difference in educating the children of Guyana. Almost immediately, the performance of children in school should improve because the kids will have more access to information and thus be able to do better in their class assignments.
It will also allow for faster communication between persons living here and their relatives overseas. It will allow for a wide range of economic benefits for those receiving the computers. It will help also to create jobs such as telemarketing which can be done at home by single mothers.
But the principal beneficiaries will be big business, companies who are thinking big and thinking about dominating the local market. The one laptop per family project will see another segment of the Guyanese economy coming under the control of the powerful economic oligarchy which has emerged in recent years.
One way to prevent further incursions by the powerful economic forces is for the taxpayers of Guyana to insist that since it is taxpayers monies that is funding the fibre optic cable, that instead of contracting out to a private ISP for the internet service provider, that the government itself provide the internet service for the laptops that will be publicly distributed.
In this way, instead of enriching a private firm, the money stays with the people who can be asked to pay a small fee over the long term to cover the operational costs of providing internet access to the recipients of the laptops.

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