Business prospect of establishing WLAN in developing countries

Abstract

In the developing countries lays a huge business potential for Internet distributors and other Internet service providers. There are certain factors contributing to this and several real life barriers needing to be crossed to establish such a business for an outside entrepreneur. The purpose of this thesis is to find the factor that contributes to the growth in Internet users in developing countries and identify important barriers and difficulties that needs to be dealt with order to get a success for such a business. A statistical analysis including a correlation analysis and a regression model is used to identify the factors effecting Internet usage and technology penetrations. A case study of one of the countries in the selection is also done in order to reveal real life difficulties and conditions in a developing country.Results show that there are a few statistical significant variables to the Internet usage, these are "International bandwidth" and "GNI per capita". Although these have a low value of effect on Internet usage they are to be focused on when selecting a country to start up an Internet providing business. The case study revealed several factors that would be of interest for an ISP entrant. The status of equipment in use are that they are outdated and most people access the Internet through Internet kiosk were they pay a hourly rate for access. As they use the existing ISPs they are a potential costumer instead of competitor, this would help reaching the people that does not possess the equipment to access the Wi-Fi network directly. The need for a cash option in payment methods is also very significant as this is the main payment method used in developing countries.