IEEE Technology and Society Magazine - March 2015 - 24

local cultural and religious aspects and incorporated
them into the operation of some of these processes, for
example the birth process.

General Sustainability Plan
The aforementioned socialization and work efforts have
resulted in collaborative implementation and joint operation and maintenance, thus assuring short-term sustainability of the project. However, political changes and
other factors call for a diversification of stakeholders and
the expansion of services into other areas of the region,
including the provision of services other than health.
There isn't a magic bullet for the ongoing success
and constant operation of the infrastructure in these
remote areas, especially when they are highly dependent on a mix of high-level political and economic
components that are extremely time-varying or volatile.
These issues might underline the need for more socially oriented innovative sustainability models that will
involve the local population more, will diversify the
source of income, invest any benefit in the community itself, and will focus on pressing issues. This section
provides a general glimpse of the sustainability plan of
the Peruvian Amazon initiative.
In our context, a business (sustainability) plan needs to
evolve and adapt itself to the time-varying realities of the
circumstances of the region. The plan makes explicit the
short, medium, and long-term prospects based on actual
needs. The plan needs to include innovation, capacitybuilding, and empowerment as key components, as recommended by researchers, practitioners, and beneficiaries.
The socialization of the project, which was the basis
for implementation, short-time sustainability and service to health, will be part of other components that
form the basis for long-term sustainability and further
diversification of services. Other important factors that
will influence long-term sustainability are the momentum resulting from the short and medium-term success
of the initiative, the benefits that the network is providing to the community, and the responsibility to serve
other high-need applications such as education.
Fig. 7 illustrates the stages of a medium and longterm sustainability plan whose different components are
being planned and implemented. The plan is composed
of varied periods of time and years. Each period is characterized by gradually and securely expanding infrastructure and services, thus creating incremental increases in
the utilization of the network. The first stage has been in
operation for almost three years and it is focused mostly
on health. We argue that health constitutes a good foundation and pillar for further expansion to other areas for
the following reasons:
1) The health sector has an urgent need for communications and is generally prioritized by governments.

2) Health workers in remote areas generally have a good
trust relationship with the local population. In the
case of Peru, health care is not free and has a small
cost, thus the system is not over paternalistic.
3) Health centers and health posts are generally available at all times in remote locations.
4) Political changes might have only a small effect in the
health area. Resident doctors or nurses are quite
stable, at least for the period of their field work.
5) The utilization of ICTs for the saving of lives and other
health-related positive results generally has high visibility and is appreciated by the local people and
national organizations.
6) Generally governments specify reasonable amounts
for funding for health in national budgets.
7) Health posts and health centers know the importance
of communication. In some cases, they already utilize
VHF communications. This implies that there's already
allocation for communications in their budgets.
8) Infrastructure destined for health care can be generally more respected and there's less probability of it
being stolen.
9) While the health area is the one that has the most
rotations in rural areas, this also provides local champions who have a high level of education and could
be important stakeholders in taking charge of the
infrastructure and training locals.
10) As infrastructure is gradually adopted, its benefits are
correspondingly felt and a certain level of dependency
is created. Thus the leadership gradually includes different aspects of its operation in the yearly budget.
The second stage consists of providing services to
education, local businesses, and social organizations,
and to creating community cabins in each village. The last
two stages are characterized by serving as a community
operator. Governments (as in the case of Peru) provide
rural community licenses to institutions that comply with
a series of legal and technical requirements. It is only then
that the institution can operate as a mobile rural operator. These requirements and responsibilities set the "rural
telecom" (i.e., rural operator) stage as the last stage in the
business plan. In the meantime, and in order to gradually
deploy infrastructure to the citizenry, the entity will serve
as an "added-value provider," whose requirements are considerably less than for a "rural operator." A combination of
two institutions, a non-profit private entity and a cooperative whose members are "owners" of the infrastructure is
the modality that facilitates the legal provision of services.
In this context, the non-profit enterprise is composed of an entrepreneur whose center of operations
is in Yurimaguas and is in charge of lending technical services to the cooperative. An incubation entity
serves the cooperative and the non-profit private
institution. Operating capital will flow depending on

IEEE TEchnology and SocIETy MagazInE

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MARCH 2015

Table of Contents for the Digital Edition of IEEE Technology and Society Magazine - March 2015