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Access to content is the right to knowledge access (Rossini, 2007). Prior research indicates that ICT investment increases growth dividend (Roller & Waverman, 2001), facilitates economic growth (Waverman, Meschi, & Fuss, 2005), combats poverty (Calderon & Serven, 2004), and promotes expansion in economic activities (World Bank, 1991). ICT is also touted as a means for low-income countries to leapfrog out of their economic predicament (Murthy, 2001). Much of the literature available about ICTs in a development context focuses on the digital divide. The emergence of the ‘digital divide’ (Brown, 2000) reflected the social and economic imbalance between high and low income countries.
In considering the digital divide, issues of access and connectivity are often the first level of focus. However, there are at least four dimensions of the digital divide – an information divide due to some people’s inability to gain access to online information due to demographic characteristics; a skills divide related to computer specific capabilities; an economic opportunity divide related to the inability to receive training, education or employment opportunities; and a demographic divide related to certain people’s inability to participate in electronic offerings (Molla & Al-jaghoub, 2007; Mossberger et al., 2003). This study focuses on skills and economic opportunity divide. Innovation in low-income countries can be hampered by the multi-prong challenges of the digital divide including access to the Internet, ICTs, and content (Rossini, 2007). These challenges are also highlighted by the World Bank Findings as the three pillars of the ICT revolution: connectivity, capacity, and content (Parakash, 2003).
The literature, when discussing low-income (developing) countries, includes countries like Brazil, China, India, and Mexico. Many of these countries have affordable Internet connectivity similar to high-income countries. Telephone rates are inversely correlated to content access, i.e., digital content is less accessible when telecommunication costs are high.