Orientation of proposal :

A plan for the development of telecommunications infrastructures in developing countries should be set up, starting with access to the telephone network. This development plan, designed as a programme of international solidarity, could be supported by a special fund.

The North could constitute these funds by using different mechanisms such as :
 the fees collected from the operation by African countries of the switching infrastructures in the North during communications ;
 a tax on the commercial activities related to new information technologies carried out by subsidiaries of companies in industrialised countries operating in developing countries.
 not forgetting increased development aid in conformity with UN objectives.

The mechanisms used to manage the resources collected would be decided in collaboration with international civil society, in particular African. African governments and international civil society should attempt to revise the costs of Internet connections, which penalise developing countries. Programmes for setting up infrastructures for community access should be launched. The government, the private sector and civil society should play complementary roles in this process. Civil society could do more to defend universal access versus monopolistic positions and the liberal tenets that characterise the telecommunications sector.