## 7 Conclusions  
Sustainability of communication services in rural areas is a complex issue that has been analyzed from different perspectives in recent years. This paper complements previous studies by considering the contribution of different partners to each dimension of sustainability. The experience here presented shows how alliances among different actors make telecommunications networks sustainable in isolated areas, but the scarcity of resources and the limitations of their isolation implies that scaling up these solutions depends on the funding of governments or international institutions. This funding would be justified by the contribution that communication services make in areas such as health, education, or economic development. But to guarantee this contribution, the role that NGOs and local universities play in managing the cultural and institutional aspects of the deployments is fundamental. On the other hand, the telecommunications sector is extremely complex, both from the technological perspective and from the point of view of managing legal and commercial aspects, which makes it almost indispensable to include operators. However, operators are often reluctant to adapt to the needs of isolated communities. The SRO can serve in the interlocution of these different perspectives by providing the specific knowledge of the sector combined with flexibility and adaptability. The balanceinside these multidisciplinary alliances contributes to guaranteeing the sustainability of the initiatives in the long term, as shown in Figure 4.  
It is also important to note that Mayu (the SRO) has been growing and expanding since it was created two years ago, and that confirms that there is an important market niche for this kind of company. Giants in the telecommunications sector such as Facebook and Google are also presenting their own ideas to connect a billion people who live in rural areas. Others such as OneWeb, Telesat and SpaceX are specifically working on manufacturing and deploying LEO satellite constellations. However, although these emerging technologies will certainly be of interest, pilots testing them and including a local development perspective with an integral sustainability approach will be needed. That is why we propose creating alliances that ensure that the deployment of telecommunication services in isolated areas brings a real improvement in living conditions in isolated regions.  
The following are available online at [[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=PC53](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=PC53) dqc3k4]([https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=PC53](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=PC53) dqc3k4), Video title: \"From TUCAN3G the NAPO-CAF project\".  
**Author Contributions:** [PERSON] and [PERSON] co-conceived the study. [PERSON] proposed the methodology while [PERSON] and [PERSON] analyzed the information. The three authors contributed to the writing of the paper.  
**Funding:** This work has been funded by the Development Bank of Latin America (CAF) and by the European Commission FP7 program through project TUCAN3G (IST-601102 STP).  
**Acknowledgments:** The authors acknowledge the contribution of all partners of the NAPO consortium: EHAS, PUCP, Telefonica, HISPASAT, Mayu and PANGO.  
**Conflicts of Interest:** The authors declare no conflict of interest. The founding sponsors had no role in the design of the study, in the collection, analysis, or interpretation of data, in the writing of the manuscript, nor in the decision to publish the results.