Universal access

Introduction All review essays brim with information. Whenever we attempted to devise a coherent framework to organize this information, we found that we had left out sizeable portions of the universal access literature. On the other hand, our efforts to cover the literature exhaustively generated an organizational structure at such a high level of generality that it lost its analytical edge. The root of these problems lies in the peculiar nature of the literature on universal access. It is sprawling and diffused across many different domains. Everybody seems to have something to say about universal access but there is little common understanding of the core concepts and issues. Furthermore, the loosely defined concept has been applied to a wide range of domains, ranging from primary education to the rights of people with disabilities. In effect, we found ourselves dealing with an intellectual terrain that would not fit into typological boxes. The breadth and diversity of the literature are mirrored in the conceptual ambiguity surrounding universal service itself. At various times in its history, universal service has been interpreted to mean an interconnected telecommunications network; universal geographical coverage; subsidized access to telecommunications services and information and communication technologies (ICTs); access for communities with specialized needs, such as the disabled; and so on. In the various literatures that we reviewed, this conceptual ambiguity continues to be in evidence-universal service is shorthand for a variety of socioeconomic objectives underlying telecommunications policy open to selective interpretation based on the ideological proclivities and policy goals of the interest group professing the viewpoint. A critical review essay therefore has to begin by clarifying the universal service concept itself. We do so by examining the egalitarian impulse at the heart of universalism-the idea that some services need to be accessible to all citizens in a democracy. This egalitarian impulse

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