Mongolia: OBA Pilot Project of Universal Access Strategy

In Mongolia, access to telecommunications services has been extremely limited, especially in the remote and sparsely populated areas. Some of the challenges include the rugged geography and the nomadic lifestyle of the rural population as well as government ownership and incumbent control of the long-distance transmission network. To tackle these challenges, GPOBA support was used to provide subsidies for the expansion of ICT services into rural areas and to manage and finance several “least-cost” subsidy competitions. The recipients of subsidies were private operators that are responsible for installing and operating the rural voice and Internet services. This approach managed to harness the power of the private sector by providing incentives to deliver services in rural areas to low-income communities.