Features Regulation and Competition Decree 76412000: The New Legal Framework for the Liberalization of Telecommunications Services in Argentina Thierry CHAUMEIL & Joaquin ACUNA ................................................ 121 Public Policies Local Loop, Competition and Regional Planning: Lessons Drawn from the French Experience ................................................................................. JerGme BEZZINA 135 Book Review Beatrice van BASTELAER, Laurent HENlN & Claire LOBET-MARIS, Villes virtuelles - Entre Communaute et Cite ................................................................................ by Thierry VEDEL. 147 ......................................................................................... Summaries 149 Prioritizing Countries for Assistance To Overcome the Digital Divide Charles KENNY (') The World Bank, Washington Introduction A spate of recent initiatives and pronouncements by world leaders and development organizations suggest that the issue of unequal global access to information and communications technologies, and especially the Internet, is of increasing concern. The Okinawa Chatter and the resulting DotForce initiative, discussed by Bruno Lanvin elsewhere in this journal, is perhaps the most significant recent example. While a global response is to be welcomed, in order to provide the right type of assistance to the countries that will benefit from it most in the ICT arena, some method of prioritization is required. This paper attempts to take 'a first step in that direction. This paper will focus on just one element of the digital divide - the gap in access to quality information infrastructure. It will use a measure of access that allows for the income per capita of a country. It will also build on previous econometric studies that have looked at determinants of information infrastructure penetration allowing for, but going beyond, income. After a brief literature review, it develops two indicators of the present level and quality of ICT access in a country, as well as four indicators (beyond income) of the determinants of access and quality. After testing the determinant indicators to see if they are, indeed, related to the quality and quantity of access, it uses them to suggest priority countries for particular (') The views and opinions in this paper are the author's own, and do not necessarily reflect those of the World Bank, its Executive Directors, or the countries that they represent. The paper borrows material from GRACE et al. (2001). Thanks to Christine QlANG for developing the ICT index. COMMUNICATIONS B STRATEGIES, no. 41. 1"' quarter 2001, p. 17.