A Critical Analysis on the Implementation Status of Telecentres in Nepal

By: Bidya Nidhi Lamsal 1, Prof. Pat Hall 2 and Ass. Prof. Anup Banskota 3
1, 2, 3

Department of Computer Science and Engineering School of Engineering Kathmandu University, Dhulikhel, Kavre, Nepal

September, 2008

ABSTRACT
Telecentres are now the focus of much attention in rural development discourse, hailed as the solution to development problems by providing desperately needed access to information and communication technologies (ICTs). Telecentre is a generic term and there are a great variety of telecentres. My study focused on characterizing the implementation status of the telecentres in Nepal and documenting the extent of and barriers to further development. I visited most of the sponsors of telecentres, and many of the telecentres themselves, interviewing people, observing the telecentres at work, and filling up the questionnaires. The goal was to use this information to develop strategies and actions that could be taken to overcome digital divide barriers and increase the development of telecentres in support at rural level in Nepal. I used ArcGIS 9.2 to create a complete database (spatial/non-spatial) and a thematic layer of telecentres as an overlay on a digital map of Nepal. This also used to analyse the telecentres locations, coverage and the population they serve. I found that more than 50% of the telecentres in Nepal are in a critical condition and at risk of closing. The critical influencing factors for sustainable rural telecentres are technological barriers, socio-economical dynamics, IT education and the geographical placement. This paper critically reviews a number of themes and issues and suggests a technical framework for the implementation of the sustainable telecentres in rural areas of Nepal.

INTRODUCTION A telecentre is a public place where people can access computers, the Internet, and other digital technologies that enable people to gather information, create, learn, and 3 communicate with others while they develop essential 21st-century digital skills . While each telecentre is different, their common focus is on the use of digital technologies to support community, economic, educational, and social developmentreducing isolation, bridging the digital divide, promoting health issues, creating economic opportunities, and reaching out to youth. Telecentres exist in almost every country, although they sometimes go by different names (e.g., village knowledge centers, infocentres, community technology centers, community multimedia centers, or school-based telecentres). The rapid improvements in information and communication technologies are revolutionizing the way modern governments deliver services to the citizens. Nepal, a developing country has also taken steps towards e-government transformation, similar to the governments in developed countries. Government of Nepal in its 10th five-year plan has aimed to establish 1500 rural telecentres within the country, with strategic focus on content development and social appropriation, sustainability and community ownership 2 issues . In Nepal, there are rural and remote communities that have been left behind in terms of educational and technological equity and access. The current government of Nepal has set a target for government services to be available in electronic format in some years to come. Initiatives under development are predominantly aimed at providing access to ICT for those who do not have access elsewhere. Similar provision already exists in many communities across neighboring countries in the form of telecentres, e-centres, kiosks and many more.
Furthermore, development of government initiatives is occurring at such a speed that insufficient attention has been paid to lessons that can be learnt from existing telecentres. The argument here is that before further developments are planned, it was necessary to undertake research to examine the extent to which people use existing telecentres. Unfortunately, such research has not yet been carried out to alert the development of government policy as well as the concerning organizations in this area. It is within this context that the present study was undertaken and the aims and objectives of the study set to address this gap in research.

Indicators in the study of Telecentres

Indicators are measuring devices . Depending upon the depth and project requirement some selected indicators are included in this study, which are listed below; Basic parameters for background information of a telecentre o Location and access o Origin, ownership and management o Facilities and equipment Indicators that impact for the demand of telecentre services o Community characteristics o Current ICT services o Expressed need Indicators of service performance o Percentage of time that service to telecentre is interrupted o Percentage of time that each unit of equipment is working o Number of major risk events to equipment or telecentre infrastructure o Number of people served by telecentre o Percentage of visits by user in which telecentre was open and operational Indicators of Sustainability o Financial o Technical o Human resource o Political
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Data Analysis
1. Status Analysis of Telecentres
The statistical analysis depends on the data that was collected from most of the sponsors of telecentres, and many of the telecentres themselves, interviewing people, observing the telecentres at work, and filling up the questionnaires. The 21 telecentres were selected depending up on their geographic placement, their types and connectivity they use.

1.1. Comparison between Services Offered and Demand of Services

From The figure: 1, it shows the demand of services line fall completely below the service offered line. This shows that in current situation, the offered services fulfill the demand of services. But if we analyze carefully, people are not using some offered services like; e-learning, awareness and video conferencing. Out of 21, VOIP facility provided at three telecentres but that facility frequently used only in two telecentres. It may be the case, if there were large number of telecentres providing the VOIP facility then there would have been higher usage of that facility. But the rival argument is that people in communities do not know enough about technology to say what they want because they do not know enough knowledge about IT that is the fact which affects access and use of telecentres.

21 18 15 12 9 6 3 0

Services offered Demand of services

photocopy

email/Int

fax

ag.info

voip

Figure: 1. Comparison between services offered and demand for services

1.2. Distance from Telecentre to Other Institution

The presence of other institutions near to telecentre affects the usage of telecentre. People want to save the time so that they can complete number of works at the same time. From the table: 1, it shows that most of the schools and roads are within the distance of 1km from the telecentres. Out of 21 telecentres, 11of them are found to be within 1km range of the market places. Police station is found to be within 1 km range of 10 telecentres and found to be more than 4km range of 2 telecentres.

Furthermost Institutions/ places School Health centre Community centre Road Police station Market place

Numbers of telecentres (0-1)km (1-2)km (2-3)km 19 1 0 12 3 1 14 2 0 17 3 0 10 3 1 11 1 2

(3-4)km 0 1 1 0 2 1

>(4-5)km 0 2 0 0 2 0

Table: 1. Distance from telecentres to other institution/places

1.3. Correlation between Types of Telecentres and Service Hours

From the figure: 2, it is clear that the school telecentres serve in between 1 to 6 hours per day. The CMC and the telecentres serve about 8 to more than 10 hours per day. During the school hour, telecentres are used for school purpose and not available for public use, this might be the one reason that school-based telecentres have poor economic status (self sustaining problem). On seeing the economic status and the service hours, all of the telecentres which are sustaining themselves, are community telecentres and CMCs because their opening hour is higher and they provide more services with the higher number of visitors. 5

videoconfe.

awareness

gov.info

e-learn

training

tel.

dt.work

6 5 4 3 2 1 0 (1-2)hrs (2-4)hrs (4-6)hrs (6-8)hrs (8-10)hrs >10hrs Telecentre CMC School telecentre

Figure: 2. Correlation between type of telecentre and service hours

1.4. Telecentres and Population They Serve

From the figure: 3, it shows that 40% of the telecentres serve about 1000 to 2000 of the population size. 20% of the telecentres serve about 3000 to 4000 population size. 25% of telecentres serve minimum population size which is less than 1000.

Telecentres and population they serve

>4000 15% <1000 25%

<1000 (1000-2000)

(3000-4000) 20% (1000-2000) 40%

(3000-4000) >4000

Figure: 3. Telecentres and population they serve

1.5. Income and Expenditure Correlation

From the figure: 4, we can see, one telecentre which has the highest income Rs.20000 and equal expenditure. There is another telecentre which has the highest gap between income and expenditure (Rs.15000 income and Rs.6000 expenditure). Out of 21 telecentres, there are only 4 telecentres which are making the noticeable profit. In most of the telecentres, the income line falls below the expenditure line. The services at 5 school telecentres are not available for public access and they do not have any revenue generation. But they have minimum expenditure which is managed by schools themselves. Note: $1=74 Rs. 6

Income/Expenditure correlation
25000 20000 15000 10000 5000 0 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 11 12 13 14 15 16 17 18 19 20 21 TelecentreID INCOME EXPENDITURE

Figure: 4. Correlation between income and expenditure

1.6. Telecentres and Their Economic Status

Regarding to economic status, from the figure: 5, it shows that 47% (10 out of 21) of the telecentres are running in loss and 29% (6 out of 21) of the telecentres are in balance condition where as 24% of the telecentres are running well as profit making.

Rs.

5; 24% 10; 47%

loss balance profit

Telecentre operators qualification

6; 29%

ntres and their economic status Figure: 5. Economic status

1.7. Coverage of the Telecentres

The coverage defines as a geographic boundary from where people come most frequently to visit the telecentres. There are 7 telecentres which cover the radius of less than 2 kilometers range. Again 7 telecentres cover about 2 to 4 kilometer ranges. There are minimum numbers of telecentres which cover more than 8 kilometers. On analyzing the income/expenditure status, all of the profit making telecentres serves about more than 4 kilometers range.

Telecentre

21 18 15 12 9 6 3 0

no. of telecentres

7 3 2 2 >8km

<2km

(2-4)km (4-6)km (6-8)km

Coverage

Figure: 6. Coverage of the Telecentres

1.8. Telecentres and the visitors size

It shows that 38% of the telecentres have the visitors size 1 to 10 persons per day. There is only 10% of the telecentres have visitors size 50 and above. The higher the number of visitors the higher there would be the delivery of services to support socio-economic development of rural areas because different people have different needs.
(50 and above) 10%

Telecentres and visitors size per day

(1-10) 38%

(40-50) 14%

(1-10) (10-20) (20-30)

(30-40) 14%

(30-40) (40-50) (50 and above)

(20-30) 14%

(10-20) 10%

Figure: 7. Telecentres and visitors size per day

1.9. Types of Connectivity

On site survey it was seen that most of the connectivity were either dialup or pure Wi-Fi where each of them occupies 33%. Cable, CDMA and Radio-link (ISP provided) connectivity were seen in less number of the telecentres.

Pure Wi-Fi Cable

Dialup 33%

Pure Wi-Fi 33%

CDMA Radio link Dialup

Radio link Cable 10% CDMA 10% 14%

Figure: 8. Types of connectivity

1.10. Users Satisfaction Regarding to Cost, Time and Facilities

From the Figure: 9, it is clear that the majority of users are satisfied with the services regarding to cost and time. But still 43% (9 out of 21) of the users are not satisfied with the facilities regarding to cost and time. The higher level of dissatisfaction problem is seen to be a big issue. It was mentioned by the operators during the site visit that the local people have the intension to use services with free of cost. They think that telecentres are public property so it should charge less or no charge of services.
Safisfied Not satisfied

9; 43% 12; 57%

Figure: 9. Users satisfaction

1.11. Equipments Available

The highest number of telecentres, 18 out of 21, contain the telephone equipment at least 1 set. 7 telecentres contain less than 3 computers, the same numbers for 5 computers and more than 5 computers. Only 4 telecentres contain printer at least 1 set. 12 telecentres contain fax machine and photocopier at least 1 set. If we correlate with the economic status, we can find all the telecentres which are in profit have at least 5 computers and are in working condition.

21 No of telecentres 18 15 12 9 6 3 0
1.Computer(<=3)
2.computer(=5)
3.computer(>5)
4.telephone at least 1
5.fax at least 1
6.photocopier at leat 1
7.audio/visual aids
8.printer at least 1

4 5 3 Equipments 6

Figure: 10. Equipments available

1.12. Problems with the Telecentres

From the figure: 11, it is clear that the most severe problem with the telecentres is unreliable electricity problem (frequent cut off and fluctuation). Unavailability of technical persons and connectivity problems are seen in 11 out of 21 telecentres. The maintenance and equipments failure (dumped equipments) problems are also the noticeable problems with the telecentres.
21 18
No. Of Telecentres

21

Electricity Maintenance Equipments failure Technical person Connectivity

15 12 9 6 3 0 Problems 9 8 11 11

Figure: 11. Problems with the telecentres

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Precise Representation of Telecentres in a Map of Nepal

ArcGIS 9.2 is complex software which is used to create a complete database (spatial/nonspatial) and for the identification of the locations of the telecentres and a thematic layer of telecentres as an overlay on a digital map of Nepal. A complete data set of telecentres in Nepal has been developed using ArcGIS 9.2; with the help of ArcGIS 9.2 on the available spatial/non-spatial data set, we can make any kind of query to generate the result at decision making level. The coverage and the location of the telecentres can easily be seen using this software tool. One hundred and fifteen telecentres are represented on a map of Nepal along with the available information. The three figures below are generated using this software tool which represents the following things; Figure: 12. Distribution of telecentres in Nepal at unit level Figure: 13. Distribution of telecentres according to connectivity and location Figure: 14. Distribution of telecentres according to their name and location

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Figure: 12. Distribution of telecentres in Nepal at unit level

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Figure: 13. Distribution of telecentres according to connectivity

4
0 45 90 Kilometers 180

8
Nepal_VDC Dialup

8
Legend

WiFi VSAT CDMA

13

Figure: 14. Distribution of telecentres according to their name

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Challenges in the Development of the Telecentres

On the basis of above findings as well as the available literature on telecentres, this section provides an overview of the challenges that come in the way of the development of telecentres in Nepal. Regulated and Reliable Electrical Power Reliable Connectivity Physical Infrastructure Investment for Telecentre Human Resources Identifying the Community Needs Motivation Local Content Development Cultural Barriers Sustainability Regulatory Barriers Educational barriers Ownership and management

Recommendations
On the basis of above result of critical analysis as well as available literatures on telecentres, a broad framework has been developed. This model will be the base for the further development of telecentres in Nepalese context. The study has identified some criteria to be taken before the establishment of telecentres in rural areas. In the figure: 15, it shows the broader framework for the development of sustainable telecentres in rural areas.
Planning Identifying locations Identifying community and mobilizing Identifying the possible services of demand Designing the telecentres

Implementation Creating steering and management committee Appointing telecentre operator Organizing awareness campaign Determining services Training of staff and community

Monitoring Ensuring the activities in the planning and implementation phases are completed Monitoring the usage of telecentre services Improvement of services

Evaluation Determining whether goals were met Determining impact of telecentre

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Figure: 15. A framework for the development of telecentres

1. Planning
1.1. Identifying locations
On analyzing the result obtained, the following criteria can be taken in account to identify the locations for the telecentres; Population size On analyzing the well running telecentres, the population size they serve is more than 1000 of the total population in that locality. The location can be chosen where the total population size is about 2000 to 5000. Presence of other institutions The presence of other institutions highly impact for the usage of telecentre. People want to save the time so that they can complete the number of tasks at the same time. The higher is the number of visitors the higher will be the usage of telecentre and the services the telecentre offers. There should be 2 schools, with at least 300 students each, within 2 kilometers distance. A fixed market place with at least 10 wholesale vendors within 2 kilometers radius. Presence of police station within 2-5 kilometers radius. Presence of community centres within 2 kilometers radius. The health centres should be within 2-5 kilometers radius from the proposed telecentre. If possible, there should be famous places near to telecentres where people frequently come to visit. Road The presence of road within 1-2 kilometers distance so that the local people do not have to suffer while going to telecentre. There should be a minimum walking distance to the telecentre from the market place or from the local bus station. Presence of electricity There should be the availability of reliable electrical power. If there is the problem of reliable power then there can be number of other energy sources as alternative to the grid supply like; A diesel run power generator Batteries as a power reservoir and battery charger (UPS) Solar panel for battery charging Wind turbines

1.2. Identifying of community

Community means all sections of a geographically based population within a defined area and should strive to include all sections of that population; individuals, schools, local businesses, community groups and voluntary organizations 1.

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While selecting the community, it is necessary to identify the enthusiasm of the community to get involved in the management of telecentre because the sustainability also depends on the successful integration of telecentre into the community.

1.3. Identifying the possible demand of services

In the analysis result, it shows that the service offered by telecentres fulfill the demand of users. But if we look at closer, the advance services like; e-learning, telemedicine, agricultural information, government information, VOIP, the programs to enhance the livelihood of local people and the like are not demanded by the users. The reason behind this is that the local people do not have enough ideas about what the services they can access form the telecnetres and how can they be benefited from them. The more information provided to the public, the better the choices that will be made. So it is necessary to identify the possible services that fulfill the local needs along with awareness programme.

1.4. Designing of telecentres

In designing phase of the telecentres, it is essential to design in the aspect of technology choices and the models of telecentres. School-based telecentres The study shows, one of the good part of the school based telecentres is administrative stability. High sense of responsibility and good ownership with management are the key part of the school based telecentres. It is seen that the usage of the school telecentres is primarily focused for school purposes rather than to fulfill the community needs. For the wide access of the school telecentres to the local community, it is essential to study the following things; Current relationship of school to its community What are the possible positive and negative impacts of community access to school facilities? School attitudes Does a sense of insiders versus outsiders exist? Is there a welcoming attitude towards public access or a more cautious attitude? Will the school students encourage their family members to use the telecentre. What are the perceptions of teachers who are not involved in the telecentre? Is there a mechanism or process to ensure that they have a sense of ownership and participation towards the telecentre project? Operation Hours The study shows, the maximum time for public access is not more than 6 hours including off time. So it is necessary to consider The hours of operation of the centre Will the hours be affected by the school opening hours? Management Who will manage the centre? Will decisions be made by the school headmaster or by a community member, or a combination of both?

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The study shows one of the school teachers working as a telecentre operator which cause them to put a lot of pressure and can subtract from their traditional teaching loads and leave inadequate time for the effective management of the telecenters in the after-school hours. But they have capability to aware the local people if they are trained with excess computer trainings and skilled enough so that they will be able to run telecentres well. Community telecentres These centres are created and maintained by a community for the community. On seeing the status of community telecentres, the telecentres which are running well are the community telecentres. But there is somehow lack of responsibility in community telecentres. So it is essential to address these issues in community telecentres; Security Ownership, and Management, The CMCs are providing wide number of services than the other community telecentres do, they are self sustaining condition and running well. Choices of technology The greatest threat to telecentre sustainability is also technical and technological. There are some technologies for connectivity currently used in Nepalese context. Dialup connectivity Mostly, it is seen that dialup connectivity has problem regarding to speed of data transfer which is less than 32 kbps, frequent failures in connection. The theft and vandalism problems are also a severe problem in wired connectivity. The dialup connectivity has problem for the purpose of high speed data transfer for e.g. video conferencing, large size document uploading and downloading, browsing of online multimedia contents. In addition, dial-up access, even when it is inexpensive, is often too unreliable for commercial operations so it is not suitable for rural connectivity. Cable, CDMA connectivity The study shows, these connectivity have the medium data transfer capability which is in between 32 to 64 kbps. Though the initial installation cost is less but the telecentres which are having these connectivity have to pay more in regular usage which caused the users to pay more per service. VSAT According to the available documents from the organization which are using VSAT technology for rural connectivity, it shows that the fees local people can pay to use telecentres in remote areas cannot cover the cost of VSAT connectivity. The installations cost is too higher. Where possible, a network of telecentres using the same VSAT access point may be able to share the bandwidth and distribute the cost, thereby making it affordable for each telecentre. Wireless connectivity

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The study shows, wireless technologies such as WiFi offer some of the best opportunities for providing rural and underserved communities and telecentres with high-quality, affordable, broadband Internet access. Currently, in rural telecentres the data transfer speed of WiFi connectivity is in between 64 to 128 kbps which provides the fast data transfer facility. The WiFi with point-to-multi point connectivity is the better solution for the rural connectivity in Nepal. Hardware configuration and peripherals Hardware configuration in this frame work refers to networks, computers, and peripherals The essential criteria for hardware; There should be at least 5 desktop PC or laptops, this also depends on the flow of users. A multimedia model, which is more beneficial and versatile, Multimedia computers have multipurpose functions Focused should be concentrate not only for a general services but also some multimedia like advance services. Software The choices of the software depend on the demand of users. However, In terms of software options, telecentres need to decide between licensed and open source software, where the advantages and disadvantages of each have to be weighed before selecting applications and operating systems to run. The software cost plays the main role for rural areas.

2. Implementation
For the better implementation of telecentres, it is essential to take in account of the following things; Creating steering and management committee It is necessary to form a good committee which can take all the responsibilities in handling and managing the telecentre. The committee should have enthusiasm and willingness to work on behaves of local people. The main aim should be to enhance the livelihood of local people by providing a wide variety of ICT services according to the local demand. Appointing telecentre operator The study shows, the school teachers who have a good qualification and understanding of the need of ICT for the rural development may be better to appoint them as a telecentre operator in the school based telecentres. While selecting the telecentre operator, minimum criteria can be taken in account; Excellent interpersonal and communication skills (verbal written and presentation skills) Good community development skills Knowledge of community resources and involvement in community activities Ability to plan and execute projects with very little direction Ability to work independently and also as part of a team 19

Management Skills Public relations skills Ability to sell ideas A basic understanding of training systems Ability to train addition staff Basic research skills Organizing the awareness campaign The study shows that the local people do not have a little idea about the ICT and its usage; this is because of the lack of IT knowledge. Even some of the services provided by the telecentres are not used by the local people. So, the more the people become aware the higher will be the usage of the telecentres. Series of meetings in the selected location need to be conducted by the facilitators to circulate the new ideas. Determining the services It is necessary to identify the possible services the telecentres can offer. This will allow the telecentres to determine what their core businesses are and can expand the services if the demand is great. The possible services the telecentres can provide are; Computing services Word processing, Desktop publishing, Spreadsheets, databases, Graphic design and Business and secretarial services etc. Training and education Education and training (distance education, tele-learning, face-to-face Adult and Community Education), Computer training. Basic office services Telephone, Fax, Photocopying, Printing, Scanning, Binding, Laminating etc. Information services Service directories, Internet searches, information services (advertised vacancies and staff availability. Government information, up-to-date local and world news, market prices, trade opportunities, classified advertisements and other information of interest to the community can also be made available.). Agricultural information ( diseases info, market price, farming info, etc) Health and sanitation information Training of staff and community The study shows 11 out of 21 telecentres have unavailability of trained technical persons which leads to problems. So it is essential to train the telecentre operators with enough IT skills so that they can solve small problem themselves as well as they can conduct trainings to other community members. For that, it is essential to provide some training to users which would make local people to work independently.

3. Monitoring
Monitoring is a key process which must be carried out to identify any problems and shortcomings, so that improvements can be made. The monitoring process would also provide measures to ensure the targets or activities of the telecentres are successfully

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accomplished. Some aspects of the telecentres that need to be monitored include computer usage, financial details, and service performance. It is essential to monitor the following things; User profiles Service availability The services requested and used should be recorded. This will allow the telecentres to determine what their core businesses are and can expand the services if the demand is great. Services provided Equipment (computer, printer, etc.) down time

4. Evaluation
Study shows that there is no any kind of evaluation program that is conducted in existing telecentres. The major aim of conducting evaluation is to determine the impact that the telecentres have on the community. Specifically, there is a need to determine whether the project has achieved its intended objectives. Evaluation provides guidance for a development agency for its next telecentre installations and on multiple sites, pointing out how well these are working, what changes or improvements should be made and what was learned that could be applied in other similar projects. This information can also be useful to other agencies supporting telecentre projects.

Future work
There are some points which reflect as a future work to be completed in Nepalese context Flexible, responsive and innovative social investment mechanisms to support the establishment of new telecentres at the grassroots level. Well-packaged, easy-to-replicate community services for telecentres such as telemedicine, remote learning, financial remittances and e-government. Simple, proven social enterprise models that telecentres can use to generate community impact and financial revenue. Flexible, on going training and support for hundreds of thousands of grassroots technology activists. Low-cost, easy-to-implement telecentre technology platforms, including affordable and stable internet connections for rural areas. Networks and partnerships that help good ideas travel far and wide, and help the telecentre movement reach a global scale. An enduring commitment to telecentres and other grassroots technology initiatives from all sectors: governments, businesses, development agencies and communities.

Conclusion
The efforts in the establishment of telecentres in Nepal to bring equal opportunities to marginalized and disadvantaged communities and to provide ICT as an enabler for rural development are remarkable. But, still we are far behind in the development of rural ICT

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Services the rural telecentres offer are limited because the e-government services are not fully implemented yet in Nepal so that the local people can get e-services through telecentres. Research shows even half of the telecentres are running critically and at a risk of closing. The critical influencing factors for the development of sustainable rural telecentres are technological barriers, socio-economical dynamics, IT education and the geographical placement. Fear and lack of ICT illiteracy confronts communities trying to use a completely new technology. To minimize the sustainability problem, it is essential to identify proper location, regarding to other intuitions and places like; school/college, market places, health centres, roads and the like. It is seen that population density also affects the usage of telecentres. The connectivity problem can be solved by widening the wireless technology. The number of other alternatives can be adapted for reliable electricity. It is essential to organize the awareness campaign as well as excess trainings to the local people and the operators which will help to generate skilled human resource. The first attention should be given to the demand driven local content development. Although poor infrastructure and a low base of human capital in ICTs contribute to their low penetration and use, the government can demonstrate strong support by providing an enabling business environment such as levying zero taxes on ICTs, ratifying and implementing a national ICT policy, and free license and support for wireless connectivity in rural areas. The purposed framework would help for the development of sustainable telecentres at rural level as well as alert the development of government policy and the concerning organizations in this area. There is still necessary to undertake much research and study on rural ICT which will help to overcome the digital divide barrier and the rural people would fully be benefited from this advance technology.

References
[1]. Debbie Ellen, (January 2000),Telecentres and the provision of community based access to electronic information in everyday life. Manchester Metropolitan University [2]. HLCIT (2007), High Level Commission for Information Technology, web resourceURL: <http://www.hlcit.gov.np/telecenters.php> [3]. Wikipedia definition of telecentre, URL: < http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Telecentre>, February 17, 2007. [4]. Whyte Anne (2000), Accessing Community Telecentres, A guidelines for researcher, Published by the International Development Research Centre, National Library of Canada.

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