263 © Kerry McCallum and Franco Papandrea ICT USERS IN REMOTE INDIGENOUS COMMUNITIES " KERRY McCALLUM AND FRANCO PAPANDREA (Refereed) Information and communications technologies (ICT) have been increasingly integrated into the delivery of many public and commercial services including banking, health, education and social security assistance. They have also become an important medium for social interaction and can help reduce the sense of isolation of people in remote communities. Adequate access to ICT infrastructure, a prerequisite to the delivery of services, has therefore attracted much attention in public policy-making. Remote Indigenous communities being among the most disadvantaged in Australian society have attracted some special attention. For them, access to adequate telecommunications services are thought to be crucial to the delivery of public services aimed at improving their socio-economic wellbeing. In the past decade, acknowledging the poor state of communication infrastructure and service delivery in remote Indigenous communities, governments have implemented several programs and policy initiatives with the aim of improving access and use of telephone internet services of residents in those communities. While initiatives such as the Telecommunications Action Plan for Remote Indigenous Communities (TAPRIC) have helped provide access to basic facilities, the use of communications services remains at very low levels. The latest relevant data by the Australian Bureau of Statistics (ABS) 1 , for example, show that 78.7 per cent of Indigenous people in remote communities (rising to 92.2 per cent in very remote communities) did not have access to the Internet in 2006. While access to ICT services is a pre-requisite for their use it does not guarantee use. Other factors are also at play. TAPRIC, for example, discussed some of the obstacles that impinge on the use and consumption of communication services in remote Indigenous communities. They include cultural, social and economic factors such as low income and affordability, low educational levels and literacy, lack of knowledge of available services and benefits that accrue from their use, lack of training and incapacity to use the services, poor and inadequate housing, and other obstacles arising from the isolation and the harsh environment prevalent in remote communities. Information on the availability and use of ICT services in remote Indigenous communities is scarce. Several studies have identified significant relationships between socio-demographic factors and the take-up of new communication services. For example, researchers at the National Centre for Social and Economic Modelling concluded that the regional differences can be explained by differences in socio-demographic factors, particularly educational qualifications and income levels. 2 Analysis of 2001 census data by Lloyd and Bill 3 found that ‘Indigenous " Paper Presented to the Communications Policy and Research Forum, Network Insight, Sydney, 29–30 September 2008. The related research project ‘The patterns of Usage of the Phone and Internet in Remote Indigenous Communities’ was supported by the Commonwealth through the Grants to Fund Telecommnucations Consumer Representations and Research program of the Department of Communications, Information Technology and the Arts. 1 Australian Bureau of Statistics (2008), ‘Patterns of Internet Access in Australia, 2006’, ABS Catalogue No. 8144.0 .55.001, ABS, Canberra. 2 See, Hellwig, O. and R. Lloyd (2000), ‘Socio-Demographic Barriers to Utilisation and Participation in Telecommunications Services and their Regional Distribution: A Quantitative Analysis’, National Centre for Social and Economic Modelling, University of Canberra, and Lloyd, R., J. Given and O. Hellwig (2000), ‘The Digital Divide: Some Explanations’, Agenda 7(4):345–358.