Long-Distance Telecommunication in Remote Poor Areas: From Partnerships and Implementation to Sustainability

New transportation, production, and telecommunications technologies have had enormous impacts on the economic, political, and social aspects of nations and their people. Different disciplines argue whether the overall consequences of these advances have been positive or negative for humanity [1]. For instance, the industrial revolution has revolutionized the quality of life and economic development of most people in the world; however most agree that this phenomena is a main cause of global warming, which might have a huge impact on future generations. Digital technologies are not exempt from the complex mix of positive and negative repercussions. While the impacts of digital technologies are gradually extending into health, education, governance, and human rights [2], these technologies are being ?adopted at alarmingly different rates and levels around the world and within countries themselves, thus impacting the levels of development and empowerment of individuals, groups of people, and nations [3], [4]. In some cases, technologies that are labeled as ?democratic? and should be tools to reach and impact all citizens, are technologies that are amplifying already existing problems and that unevenly empower segments of the population, thus altering the political, social, health, and economic ecosystems in favor of select few.