The paper motivates for the need for rural communities in Botswana to gain access to
information and communication technologies (ICTs). It generally acknowledges the excellent
telecommunications infrastructure in the country, and the stated policy of the government and
the Botswana Telecommunications Authority (BTA) to provide universal access to ICTs. The paper
then explores why the policy and the infrastructural endowments have not combined to make
Botswana an “information society” according to the timeframe envisaged in the national vision
document, Vision 2016. Citing the phenomenal growth of the mobile phone in the Botswana
telecommunications market, the paper proposes that a nascent information society could be upon
Botswana, if only the mobile cellular platform and Internet connectivity could be fully harnessed to
give people a foothold into the vast ICT field. The paper outlines the technological, institutional and
policy issues that need to be tackled to ensure that Botswana’s rural communities get the benefits
of new ICTs, with particular emphasis on the need for integrated public access centres and a new
legal framework guaranteeing access to information.