use of mobile telephone service. Unless a Ministry has appropriate servers, firewalls, desktop computers, printers, et cetera, it won’t be able to participate fully and responsibly in e- Government. 37. The limited coverage of the electricity grid in Solomon Islands is a significant constraint on private access to ICT. At the time of the 2009 national census, the main source of energy for lighting in the Solomon Islands was the kerosene lamp, used by 75% of all households. Only 12% of all households were connected to the electricity main grid: 52% of urban and 4% of rural households. A further 9% got their energy from using solar panels. 38. In areas covered by the electricity grid, the power supply is not yet of high quality. Given these constraints, hand-held devices, which have a much lower power requirement, are practical where desktop machines, which require mains power, are not. 39. Apart from the availability, cost and quality of mains power, the cost of ICT equipment remains a factor for many users. Businesspeople and public servants report that the affordability of equipment has been a factor constraining ICT use. In these circumstances, the Government is concerned to improve the affordability of ICT equipment. Literacy and ICT skills 40. Literacy is not essential to all ICT use, as not all ICT content is in text form and not all applications require users to enter text. Some applications (e.g. in the public health field) are designed to be used by people who do not read. Nevertheless, basic literacy generally is necessary for ICT use and the level of ICT use is likely to be Page | 19 Solomon Islands National ICT Policy