Impact of universal service on telecommunications and economic development in emerging economies

Abstract

This paper presents an in-depth analysis of the Universal Service (US) situation in Serbia, addressing the economic
and geographic digital divide for the introduction of broadband services. The authors’ main objectives are to study
and present a detailed overview of the state of telecom infrastructure and telecom service provisioning in the
whole territory of Serbia as well as to recommend basic elements for appropriate broadband access policies for
regions as administrative units. The study methodology includes the situation of locations (settlements) without
fixed telecom services and locations with low penetration (4 and 10%), with each settlement having more than 50
inhabitants or more than 20 households. To facilitate implementation, the economic strength of the critical
settlements and the necessary US funds are estimated, and the relationship between economic and
telecommunication development is evaluated on the level of Serbian municipalities. This relationship indicates to
policy makers that telecommunication is an important tool for overall development. Special attention is paid to
people with disabilities and low-income users. As Serbia belongs to a large class of medium countries with a
middle income and moderate telecommunications, this case study and its findings could be used as a model for
other emerging economies.
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