Variations on expenditure on communications in developing countries

In the analysis and debates about the so-called ‘information society’ and its impacts on developing societies throughout the world there is usually an excess of generalities and speculation about the concrete effects that information and communication technologies (ICTs) have on the everyday lives of their people. Frequently, the discussion and analysis are based on very general statistics on the national number of computers or total figures for web pages, mobile phones or wireless hotspots in a specific area or for a particular group of users. Even though this information is useful, a more grounded analysis of the concrete place that the use of these technologies has in the everyday life of the inhabitants of these societies is needed, in order to more deeply understand the place that ICTs occupy and how they can contribute to improving social inclusion, especially for the low income population.