In Peru, thousand of cabinas públicas de Internet have emerged since 1998 in the cities of the country, without any support from the State, NGOs or private firms. Thanks to their presence, many from the lower-income sectors of society are benefiting from cheap and widespread access to ICT connectivity. More than 85 per cent of the Peruvian users connect to the Internet in cabinas. Despite the restrictions of poverty and low levels of telephone penetration, Peru has become the second leading country in Latin America after Chile in terms of the percentage of Internet users.

The effect of the existence of cabinas is visible in Peruvian society. Cabinas have become a familiar urban facility at neighborhood level. Users say that Internet use is effectively improving their daily lives, especially among the youth and the “popular sectors.” The use of computers and Internet by school and university students has become common. Teachers express the opinion that the use of computers by students is improving the quality of education. Peruvians have changed their recreation habits and since 2002 the visit to the cabina has become the main recreation activity. In addition, Peruvians have much better communication with their relatives abroad than before, which has increased the level of remittances to the country. At the city level, cabinas offer a series of urban services that have been systematically denied poor neighborhoods. The libraries, post offices, recreational facilities, study places, youth centers, training centers, etc., that have always been lacking in the poor neighborhoods are now present and combined in the multiple services offered in the cabinas.

Recently, public and private institutions have understood the fundamental importance of the cabinas as providers of ICT connectivity and are beginning to implement different programs to use them as a bridge between citizens and government or institutions. Different networks of cabinas are currently promoting e-government activities, payment of taxes and fines, and facilitating the use of Internet by SMEs. More importantly, cabinas have become a topic of high interest for the general population. Peruvians are proud of the cabinas, which they consider a national product. There is a high affinity of the general population for these new technologies, which seems to have been promoted by the widespread aspirations regarding education as a tool for upward mobility. The “popular sectors” have been among the first to acknowledge the potential of ICTs for improving their living conditions. Increasingly, popular groups are taking the initiative and demanding better services, facilities and a stronger leading role in the telecommunications sector from the side of the government.

On the other hand, the main limitation of this commercial model is its focus on technical access. If access is important, it does not constitute an end in itself but only a first step towards universal access to information. But this first step means much more for the poor than for the affluent groups. If the Internet is merely a new invention for the affluent that is complementing or slowly replacing other telecommunication media, such as telegraph, traditional mail, fax, and local or long-distance telephone, in the developing world access to the Internet makes a big difference.

This is because it provides possibilities for communication among people who previously could not contact others who were distant from them, because of the absence, scarcity, inefficiency, or unaffordability of traditional communication services. In this way it opens up a new world that was previously out of reach.

Cabinas are now considered the “Peruvian model of access to ICTs”, which the World Bank officials have celebrated as “the most viable model” for (universal access in) developing countries. The Peruvian model is evidence of the high demand for ICT connectivity coming from low-income groups, particularly in cities. It shows that bottomup alternatives can be effective to achieve ICT connectivity. It confirms that the path towards the “information society” has no blueprints and will develop differently according to local circumstances. Finally it means that satisfying the demands for ICT connectivity of low-income groups is an investment in the future that will pay back.

Excerpt from Ana-Maria Fernandez-Maldonado, “Cabinas Públicas de Internet”, in: Connected for Development. Information Kiosks and Sustainability (ed. by Akhtar Badsha, Sarbuland Khan, Maria Garrido), United Nations Information and Communication Technologies Task Force, 2003