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"We are so used to being almost permanently online that we don't really appreciate what we have and do not really know what to do when we're not," Joni Mitchell wrote in her 1970s song "Big Yellow Taxi."
Well, telecom companies "provided the services and products that we have gotten to regard as a basic need: connection," writesjoerd Rozing in an article for the Guardian.
And it's telecom companies that provide that basic service.
In fact, Rozing writes, telecom companies "primarily contribute to the societal transition by facilitating access to key products, services, and markets that broaden opportunities for marginalised groups and individuals to participate in cultural, political, and social spaces."
Examples include providing access to broadband Internet, mobile phones, TV, and so on, as well as "material improvement in their personal financial situation, which enhances their possibilities to participate, when people upgrade from a 3G phone to a very affordable 4G smartphone, as research from Safaricom shows."
In fact, telecom companies "represent one of the least diverse sectors to work in" in emerging markets, but in developed markets, "they are therefore more stable and predictable, as they generate most of their revenues from subscriptions."
They also tend to offer an attractive dividend
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Selected Foundation News
A customized collection of news from foundations from around the Web.
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Foundation: Jack Kent Cooke Foundation
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Foundation: Gates Foundation, Community Foundation of Jackson Hole, Packard Foundation
The Community Foundation of Jackson Hole in Wyoming has been named one of the nation's top 100 not-for-profit organizations by the Chronicle of Higher Education. The Jackson Hole News & Guide...more
Foundation: Berkshire Taconic Community Foundation
Ellsworth Kelly, widely considered the father of abstract art, died last week at his home in upstate New York at the age of 92. But his legacy lives on in the form of $1.5 million in grants to...more
"It's really exciting to see students be able to learn that welding and manufacturing can have an artistic flair," the executive director of the Center for Visual Arts in Wausau, Wis., tells...more
A wood-fired pottery kiln is a centuries-old tradition that's been passed down from generation to generation in Louisiana, and now it's making its way to western New York. The Buffalo News...more
The latest trend in kids' smartwatches is one that encourages healthy habits from an early age.NehBaby, a device from Kickstarter, aims to help kids ages 2 to 8 learn how to drink water, take a...more
"If your child is surfing the web in Manchester, they can be targeted by a bad actor halfway around the world," writes John Pizzuro in an op-ed for the New Hampshire Union Leader. And that's why...more
Social Entrepreneurship
Spotlight
Finding a Place in Mainstream Social Enterprise
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