Despite the great progress that has been made in recent years, nearly half of the world population still lacks basic phone service. Most of those people live in rural areas. Typically, population density and income levels are low in rural areas. Historically, the large capital investment and high operation expense were not justified by traditional telecom carriers' business practice. Despite many promises, these regions remain largely un-served. In this paper we show that, as a result of dramatic cost reduction, it is possible today to provide basic voice and data service in these rural areas. Our study suggests that, because of new the technology, there will be hardly any economy of scale in rural telecom services. Therefore, new a business model is required and proposed for rural telecom service.
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