The Role of Telecenters in Rural ICT Development Part 2 Aguila-Obra, Camara, and Melendez (2002) have presented the

economic and organizational characteristics of telecenters. They have carried out an empirical study on a selected sample of 27 telecenters across the entire Spain with the aim of studying how the telecenters were set up. They have identified that almost all the telecenters were public sector initiatives as subsidized pilot projects. The main concern raised in the conclusion of the study is the sustainability of the telecenters after the expiry of the subsidies. The study shows that even in developed countries the financial viability of telecenters in the medium and long run is an issue in the absence of continuous funding from an external source such as governments or non-governmental agencies. Best and Kumar (2008) have studied the sustainability failures of rural telecenters in Tamil Nadu, India. The main observation of the study was the shorter operational life span of the privately operated telecenters compared to that of the NGO funded ones. Though both types of telecenters were operated in the areas with similar characteristics, the privately owned and operated ones did not enjoy any external funding and had to raise their own money for both capital and oprational expenditures from the telecnter operations themsleves while the NGO supported telecenters had the donor fundings for initial operations for a fixed period of times. The other reasons for the failures of the telecenters other than the lack of funding were lack of voice telephoney facilities, bad customer support from the network provider, lack of prior computer training and the unsatifactory internet connectivity. The most imporatnt constraints affecting the the availability and accesibility of ICT in rural communities in Nigeria include the high cost of facilities, unavailability or lack of infrastructure, lack of skills and awareness, lack of information policy and its implementation, language barriers, little or no government support and political instability (Ogbomo & Ogbomo, 2008).