7. Definition of a CTSC

A community teleservice centre may be defined as a centre where modern IT facilities are shared by the citizens of a specific local community within a rural area or deprived urban area, so that communal use can be made of the facilities available.

Their main aim is to provide village communities with access to dataprocessing and telecommunication services as well as to computer-assisted services.

Instead of individual households being linked to the network, IT facilities are concentrated within a teleservice centre containing telecommunications, electronic data processing and, sometimes, video equipment.

It may give access to telephony, telefax, electronic mail and other data communication facilities, to remote data bases (professional information services for small enterprises, farmers, tele-medicin and health support, etc., and information services from public authorities) and to computer-supported education and training, tele-medicine, professional computer programs, etc.

All these services are at the disposal of the entire local community for communal use and with access to a CTSC consultant at the local teleservice centre.

Thus a CTSC can contribute significantly to improving the conditions of deprived local communities, whether their problems are due to geographic, economic, educational or cultural factors, or concern employment, services or other infrastruc-ture.