The human dimension to telecommunications in rural areas

This paper describes how the established technology of radio broadcasting can be adapted to support the human dimension of remote rural communities. Since everyone already has a familiar radio receiver, it can also be used to support the most recent application projects of information services, multimedia and distance learning. It may also be possible to rescue some of the previous misguided projects. In addition, by utilising satellite and ISDN-2, a rural broadcasting network could link communities for social and economic benefit. Since the European Commission has stated that half of Europe´s population still live outside urban areas this aspect of the project could ultimately be very significant to the development of Europe