the private sector and governments both have crucial roles to play in ensuring that a growing percentage of the population of the developing world can access modern communications. Using the private sector, every region of the developing world will benefit in terms of investment and rollout. 40 In consequence we can expect this balance to continue in the financing of the new infrastructure using private capital under public guidance through flexible guidelines. The key growth regions for telecommunications infrastructure, as outlined above, are in developing countries. While progress has been made in closing telecommunications supply gaps here, there is still a very long way to go, both to fill existing domestic supply gaps and also to meet growing demand for global telecommunications services. To continue recent rates of progress and reach a fixed and mobile teledensity of 11.4% in low income countries, and 91.2% in middle income countries by 2010, the developing world will still need to invest about 1.2% of its GDP per year, or over USD 100 billion, in new capacity. 41 Sub-Saharan Africa alone will have to invest USD 3.8 billion each year in new capacity. And these figures do not account for growing requirements to fund broadband, for example. Table 2.12. Short-term annual requirements for developing world telecommunications investment, 2005-10 New capacity Maintenance USD m Developing World USD m 104 9 986 Developing World % GDP Sub-Saharan Africa, USD m Sub-Saharan Africa, % GDP Source: Fay and Yepes, 2003. INFRASTRUCTURE TO 2030: TELECOM, LAND TRANSPORT, WATER AND ELECTRICITY - ISBN 92-64-02398-4 © OECD 2006 2. TELECOMS INFRASTRUCTURE TO 2030 Suitability of current technologies for future infrastructure Fibre in the local loop In the 1970s, telecommunications operators began to deliver a higher quality of voice service to subscribers in remote, rural areas by a new infrastructure topology which placed the electronics in the outside plant network, rather than inside the traditional central switch exchange off