User motivation for broadband: A rural Danish study

The diffusion of broadband has gained much research attention, in particular in relation to the urban-rural divide. However, research has focused primarily on the supply side of broadband roll-out, while the demand side has been somewhat neglected. This article illustrates the complexity of broadband adoption and argues that a rural adoption approach needs to draw on existing social meaning systems. By focusing on the user motivation for broadband, this article presents findings from a qualitative study of rural residents. Means-end theory was used as a framework for understanding these motives. Furthermore, the article adapts the FCB grid as a tool for both public and private providers of broadband to examine effective rural promotion strategy.     

The broadband digital divide and the economic benefits of mobile broadband for rural areas

Broadband is becoming increasingly important to national economies and the personal lives of users. However, broadband availability and adoption are not diffusing in rural and urban areas at the same rates. This article updates the rural broadband digital divide, with special attention paid to mobility. Empirical estimations of broadband provision and usage in the US show that rural areas have fewer high-speed fixed and mobile providers but more slower-speed fixed providers than urban areas. While rural availability of mobile broadband is lower than in urban areas, it still helps fill in gaps in fixed broadband coverage in rural areas. The rural gap in fixed broadband usage remains, but the mobile broadband usage gap disappears after controlling for household demographics. The raw broadband usage gaps between rural and urban households are proportionally greater for low-income households. The potential for mobile broadband to benefit rural areas through economic development is also examined.     

The spatial distribution of broadband providers in the United States: 1999–2004

Variations in the supply and demand of telecommunications infrastructure in the United States are well documented. However, amidst waning concerns of a broadband digital divide, the geographic aspects of broadband availability continue to be intriguing. While some areas benefit from a robust selection of broadband providers, choices for consumers in other regions are often limited. The purpose of this paper is to explore the spatially unbalanced levels of broadband provision in the USA by providing an abbreviated longitudinal analysis of broadband regions and their development from 1999 to 2004. Broadband core and periphery regions are identified through the use of spatial statistical techniques and a geographic information system. A broadband competition index for ranking metropolitan and micropolitan areas is also introduced.     

The Digital Divide and Other Economic Considerations for Network Neutrality

In its 2016 Broadband Report, the Federal Communications Commission (FCC) recognizes that a rural/urban digital divide remains prevalent—especially with respect to broadband adoption. It also highlights several policies that the FCC has undertaken purportedly to reduce the divide, including the 2015 Open Internet Order (OIO)—in which the stated intent is to enforce “network neutrality.” However, long before the OIO, studies have raised concerns that network neutrality policies will discourage investment by internet service providers (ISPs) in broadband infrastructure, to the detriment of broadband accessibility, and may increase average consumer costs—both of which would only further exacerbate the digital divide. In this paper, we provide a holistic analysis of the effects of net neutrality on the digital divide; in doing so, we draw from recent economic research on this issue. Our goal is to present a range of economic considerations that should be taken into account when evaluating the overall impact of the OIO, with particular attention to its impact on the digital divide.     

The long-run effects of copper-loop unbundling and the implications for fiber

Policies mandating unbundling of copper telecommunications networks have now been in place for more than 15 years, and it is thus becoming possible to study their long-run effects. This paper reviews the existing evidence on the effects of copper unbundling, and presents new empirical results based on regression analyses of broadband penetration in OECD countries from 2001 to 2010. The results show that the long-run effect of copper unbundling on household broadband penetration rates is negative, a finding which is consistent with previous research, including with research suggesting that copper unbundling has slowed the deployment of FTTP infrastructures, especially in Europe. Based on an analysis of the similarities and differences between the unbundling of copper networks and fiber networks, the paper concludes that mandated unbundling of fiber networks would likely deter deployment of Next Generation Access networks (NGAs).     

Critical factors for the expansion of broadband in developing countries: The case of Peru

Many studies have been made on the diffusion and development of broadband, however there are few published studies on the critical factors for advancing broadband services in developing countries. Thus, the purpose of this paper is to understand and identify the critical success factors for the development of broadband services in a developing country context, using the case of Peru. In this regard, this study uses data collected from interviews with Peruvian telecommunications professionals, policy makers and regional telecommunication experts, which is supplemented by official reports and statistical data to determine the critical success factors for broadband in this country. The four factors derived are; (i) expand the availability of infrastructure, (ii) define a national broadband policy that aligns the interests of stakeholders, (iii) develop effective competition in the broadband market, and (iv) stimulate the demand for broadband services. Through a MACTOR analysis the authors found that the objectives of sharing infrastructure, the further deployment of infrastructure and the development of competition in the market for broadband services are those that generate the most divergence between actors. Additionally, the MACTOR analysis determined that no disagreement existed for the objectives related to demand stimulation. Thus, four proposals are offered for the development of Peruvian broadband. The results are relevant for academics and policy makers interested broadband development in developing countries and for rural areas of developed countries.     

Who replies to consultations,and what do they say? The case of broadband universal service in the UK

Over the last decade or so, access to broadband services has become increasingly important. While many in the UK already benefit from the provision of broadband, some, especially those located in more rural and remote areas, do not – they may not be able to access the Internet and when they do, their connection and consumer experience may be poor. After trying to resolve this through a stream of different initiatives, the UK government announced a broadband universal service obligation (USO) of 10 Mbps in late 2015. Ofcom, the telecommunications regulator, launched a consultation in April 2016 and sought the views of interested parties. The consultation attracted considerable interest, but after the submissions from orchestrated campaigns are discounted just over 100 responses remain. But who contributed and what did they say? To explore these two questions, this paper adopts a qualitative approach, using NVIVO, to analyse the responses to the consultation. We show that contributions were highly diverse, reflecting both the complexity of the issue as well as its politicised nature. A lack of agreement among the responses is revealed and divergent views on key issues like the appropriateness of 10 Mbps, whether this should change, how it should be funded or what technologies should be used exist. In this paper, we provide a critical discussion of and derive implications for the broadband USO. We tentatively conclude that those in rural and remote areas that the USO intends to help are caught between two countervailing forces – speed and cost deployment – that interact to ensure that whatever resolution to provide broadband access, some will likely be unhappy.     

Broadband adoption,jobs and wages in the US telecommunications industry

This article evaluates the impact of broadband adoption on wage and employment levels among the local exchange companies in the US telecommunications industry for the period between 1988 and 2001. Broadband is a general purpose technology and its adoption and diffusion is expected positively to impact wages because of the need for higher level skill in its deployment and usage, but can also lead to less human capital usage because of a scale effect. Using the extent of fiber adoption among the local exchange firms as a measure of broadband deployment, it was found that broadband diffusion within and between the firms over time has had a positive and significant impact on wage levels but its impact on employment has been negative. As broadband diffusion increases, with substantial scope available to do so given the low levels of deployment both among the local exchange firms studied and within the United States as a whole, the impact of such diffusion on enhancing wage levels in the sector can be profound.     

Evaluation of USDA's Broadband Loan Program: Impacts on broadband provision

Since 2002 the USDA's Broadband Loan Program has directed more than $1.8 billion in subsidized loans to help expand broadband access in under-served rural communities. Program eligibility criteria included having a population of 20,000 or fewer, having no prior access to broadband, and providing a minimum matching contribution of 15% by recipients of the loan. Loans were extended mainly to small telecommunications services firms at varying (subsidized) interest rates. We evaluate on the effectiveness of the Loan Program in increasing broadband availability in target locations. Specifically, we analyze whether loan receipt increases the number of broadband providers in a particular location, using various count panel methods. Our analysis is conducted at the ZIP code level over the period 1999–2008; it uses broadband provider data from the FCC's Form 477, and loan data from the Rural Utility Service (the implementing agency for the Broadband Loan Program). Results indicate that ZIP codes receiving broadband loans did in fact experience modest, statistically significant increases in the number of broadband providers vis-à-vis non-recipient locations; that average marginal effects on treated ZIP codes were approximately 0.092 additional broadband providers annually; and that these benefits accrued more towards rural locations than urban locations, in conformance with the intent of the program.     

Closing information asymmetries: A scale agnostic approach for exploring equity implications of broadband provision

A persistent challenge for telecommunications policy is the determination of broadband provision footprints in both space and time. In the United States, Form 477 data from the Federal Communications Commission (FCC) provide a valuable snapshot of broadband provision at the block level, but there are often inconsistencies with the underlying data. These inconsistencies include overly-optimistic self-reports from providers, requirements to report broadband provision within inflexible census administrative units, and a modest temporal reporting schedule (biannual) with a significant, one year temporal lag. These uncertainties are often compounded by telecommunications providers refusing to disclose any information on service footprints, geographic expansion plans or the characteristics of populations served by broadband. This type of obfuscation drastically limits the ability of policy analysts to evaluate outcomes (both positive and negative) associated with service provision and the digital divide, more generally. With the recent entry of Google Fiber to several metropolitan markets in the United States, many of the broadband reporting and evaluation challenges have re-emerged. The purpose of this paper is to leverage basic data mining techniques, a scale agnostic geographic framework and exploratory spatial data analysis (ESDA), to uncover the geographic intricacies of Google Fiber (Fiber) service for both Provo, Utah and Austin, Texas and compare them to Form 477 reports. In addition, we use basic statistical approaches to explore issues of broadband access and equity, accounting for the differences in socio-economic and demographic status of the populace served/not served for both cities, as well as basic pricing within and between communities.     

Technological and geographic heterogeneity in broadband markets: The challenge for regulation

When the telecommunications industry was liberalised in Europe and North America in the 1980s and 1990s, it inherited a legacy of monopoly providers whose footprint was national or multi-regional in its character. The regulatory framework, particularly that adopted in EU member states, reflected this pattern of relatively homogeneous deployment achieved, in part, by decades of cross-subsidised pricing and universal service goals. Perhaps because of this legacy, telecommunications regulators have often adopted the presumption that relevant markets are national in character, unless proven otherwise Although geographically-variegated regulatory remedies have been permitted (even in the face of allegedly national relevant markets) and adopted in many member states, many regulators have never done so, and overly cautious thresholds for permitting geographically based forbearance suggest a continued bias towards presuming national markets and remedies. We find that this presumption of uniformity and the tendency to aggregate geographic markets together is not supported by first principles of antitrust analysis, although there may have been strong practical reasons to apply this presumption in the past circumstances of the telecommunications and broadband industries.On the ground, however, there has arguably never been as much heterogeneity across geographies and across technological solutions that provide effective ultra-fast broadband speeds. Both technological (i.e., product market) and geographic heterogeneity are likely to increase with the advent of mobile 5G networks. With their deployment, a cautious regulatory stance towards geographic variation and a cautious regulatory stance towards inter-technology or inter-modal competition may result in regulation that could exceed what is required to ensure effective competition and could instead distort the incentives to enter of facilities-based actors. This may also result in higher-cost and inefficient investment. A more geographically varied and technologically agnostic regulatory framework may satisfy the principle of proportionate and focused regulation—with the possibility that the locus of regulation shifts from the access network to bottleneck facilities such as fibre, ducts and poles.This discussion is especially germane when one considers the highly speculative nature of forecasts and projections about future demand, and the competing claims of proponents of 5G and fibre. While there is some scepticism about the performance of mobile networks, we note that pure mobile and fixed 5G services may have synergies in deployment, and that the idea of competing with residential broadband services is a core strategy of very influential large-scale industry actors. In terms of a future research agenda, regulatory decisions could benefit from much more research into the relationship between domestic and global bandwidth constraints and their influence on development of software and application, as well as much more quantitative research by academics on the drivers of bandwidth demand. The risks associated with promoting investment that results in large-scale wasted resources should also be central to the regulatory agenda.     

Challenges for a broadband service strategy in rural areas: A Romanian case study

Broadband network deployment plays an important part in the strategic policies in Europe to promote growth and innovation in all sectors of the economy in addition to social and territorial cohesion. In compliance with existing community policies, Romanian strategies in this field seek to provide the necessary support for broadband connectivity in rural areas. The goal of this study is to define a rural end-user profile to plan the most appropriate broadband service strategy from both a technical and a marketing perspective. Our empirical research involves an exploratory survey conducted in rural areas in northwestern Romania (n=1040 respondents). The findings reveal low levels of customer satisfaction and users more interested in data transfer than voice or video applications. Given this rural user profile, simulations of network traffic were conducted. The simulation results suggest that WLANs are the most suitable solution for the “last mile” broadband segment.     

Public private partnerships as a tool for stimulating investments in broadband

The paper is concerned with PPP in the telecommunications area and more specifically with the combination of public and private investments in upgrading broadband infrastructures. Following the liberalization of the telecommunications area, investments were primarily left to the private sector – though public investments have continued to take place in specific areas such as research and education networks and rural and otherwise underserved areas. Lately, however, governments have upgraded their public investment plans in broadband infrastructures. The question is whether we are witnessing a simple quantitative change or whether this quantitative change includes a qualitative evolvement in the view on the role of the public sector in expanding broadband infrastructures. At the present time, the most likely answer is that increasing public investments in broadband infrastructures signal a combination of concerns raised by the economic crisis and the growing awareness of the social and economic importance of efficient broadband infrastructures.     

A longitudinal analysis of broadband provision in tribal areas

While disparities in broadband in rural areas are well documented, little research exists about broadband in tribal communities. This gap means we lack information about the trajectory of broadband deployment in tribal areas. It also means we lack comparative information about the similarities or differences in the trajectory of broadband deployment in tribal areas compared to non-tribal areas (e.g. urban and rural areas). To address this gap in our knowledge, this study utilizes longitudinal tract data constructed from information in the FCC Form 477 database to analyze broadband provision in tribal areas from 2014 to 2020. Empirical results show that rural tribes may be falling further behind the rest of the nation in broadband provision, while metropolitan tribal areas now enjoy better provision levels, on average, than their non-tribal counterparts. Additionally, the nuances of broadband distributions across tribal, rural, and urban areas make clear that a one-size-fits-all policy to aid tribal communities is inappropriate to address these and other related challenges. This is especially true as concerns about the intersection of federal broadband policy with tribal sovereignty and self-determination emerge.     

Different paths to universal access: The impact of policy and regulation on broadband diffusion in the developed and developing worlds

The authors examine the broadband digital divide by analyzing the impact of policy and regulation on broadband Internet diffusion. Their multiple regression analysis shows factors that determine broadband diffusion in technologically developed countries do not necessarily have the same impact in less developed countries. They show that in technologically developed countries, there is greater broadband diffusion in countries that make a higher financial investment in information and communication technologies (ICTs), have effective governing practices at the national level, have higher levels of education, and are more urban. In technologically developing nations, a competitive telecommunications sector and higher investment in ICTs lead to greater broadband diffusion, with investment having an even larger impact in the developing world than in the developed world. In addition, stronger democratic political institutions, higher levels of national income and lower levels of income inequality increase diffusion, but the presence of a national telecommunications regulatory authority has a negative impact. These results suggest that the path to widespread availability and use of broadband requires different strategies depending on a nation's level of technological development.     

Infrastructure investment on the margins of the market: The role of niche infrastructure providers in the UK

Across Europe, policymakers and market forces are striving to deploy next generation access (NGA) networks and ensure ubiquitous access to superfast broadband services. Due to scale economies and sunk costs, the roll-out of NGA is expected to be profitable only for large-scale providers and in densely populated areas. Nonetheless, alternative providers, such as utilities and local communities, have significantly contributed to NGA diffusion in many countries. Over the past five years, several small-scale initiatives have emerged in the UK, bringing fibre networks to urban and rural areas previously overlooked by either commercial or subsidised deployments. A multiple case study approach is employed here to explore the nature and the drivers of niche providers in the UK NGA market. All these initiatives are demand-driven and to follow a modular approach. Despite adopting different business models, they all rely on the resources inherited from past broadband initiatives and relationships with local partners. By investigating the strategies of niche providers in NGA market, this analysis sheds light on their contribution to bridging the digital divide in the UK and is presented as a preliminary assessment of their sustainability and potential growth.     

The telecommunications divide among Indian states

Using data for 16 major states in India from 2001 to 2015, this paper examines the patterns, distribution dynamics, and the drivers of telecommunications (telecom) services across different states. We apply both parametric and nonparametric econometric techniques to study the distribution dynamics of telecom services across the states. Further, we employ the generalised method of moment (GMM) to examine the determinants of telecommunications services in India. Our results indicate that the interstate gap in telecommunications services has been declining over time and there is a tendency for convergence in teledensity towards the national average. The regression analysis suggests that per capita income and network externality are significant determinants of teledensity across states in India. Furthermore, literacy rate and relative size of the service sector are independently significant predictors of teledensity. If we consider rural and urban areas separately, there are some important differences. For example, while the interstate gaps in telecom services in rural areas seem to have declined, there is little evidence of such a tendency in urban areas. However, the regression results with respect to the importance of per capita income and network externality for telecom services are robust to the rural-urban divide and to the inclusion of additional explanatory variables. The findings of this study have important policy implications.     

Telecommunications policy in Turkey: Dismantling barriers to growth

Modern telecommunications technology is now widely seen as a critical driver in economic development. However, the issues involved in the rapid deployment of this technology are complex and frequently highly controversial. While some issues are technical, the most difficult ones involve changing an institutional framework originally designed for different times and different technologies. The process of changing this framework necessarily involves disruptive change for existing infrastructure and service providers as well as substantial benefits for the economy at large. This paper, based on an extensive series of interviews in Turkey in 2005 as well as published sources, seeks to discuss these issues in light of Turkey's progress to date in taking advantage of advanced available telecommunications technology and the myriad productivity-enhancing services that are associated with it.An important element in developing a more competitive and dynamic sector has been Turkey's long-standing desire to become a member of the European Union (EU). This has encouraged changes in the telecommunications regulatory regime following the guidelines set out in Chapter 19 of the EU “acquis” for candidate members. Nonetheless, substantial further efforts are needed to complete and implement the desired regulatory framework, particularly as it affects the former government monopoly carrier, Turk Telekom and the cable companies. A further limiting factor in recent years has been an overall investment climate characterized by a high level of uncertainty for most investors, regardless of size or nationality.Policy recommendations to help accelerate the deployment of telecommunications technology include a clear reaffirmation of the government's priorities for the sector, a reduction in the level of regulatory uncertainty, strengthening the Board and Staff of the Telecommunications Authority, and reviewing policies to broaden the scope and decrease the cost of telecommunication licenses.     

Public-private partnership for building a resilient broadband infrastructure in Puerto Rico

This article will explore the use of an innovative approach to a public-private partnership (PPP) to spur the deployment of broadband and create more resilient telecommunications networks in Puerto Rico. Such a partnership is a critical ingredient of the plan for rebuilding the telecommunications sector of Puerto Rico after the island was devastated by Hurricanes Irma and Maria in September 2017. The proposed partnership also has the potential for enabling the expansion of citizen access to broadband services throughout Puerto Rico. This work was done as part of the Congressionally mandated economic and disaster recovery plan for the island.     

Willingness to pay and pricing for broadband across the rural/urban divide in Canada

Efforts to close the rural/urban digital divide in Canada have reached new heights in the wake of the ongoing COVID-19 pandemic and “stay-at-home” policies. Yet the extent to which the rural/urban digital divide extends to pricing and demand for broadband services is not well understood. Using a dataset of more than 4700 residential survey responses from southern Ontario, Canada, we assess the disparity in pricing and willingness to pay for broadband across rural and urban households. Our results suggest that rural users face higher installation and monthly fees while receiving a significantly inferior quality of service than their urban counterparts. Demand among rural users for improved broadband access is also higher than for urban users. These results may strengthen the business case for expanding broadband services into rural areas and/or supporting justification for public subsidization. Our analysis also suggests higher economic net benefits from prioritizing majority access at current federal service objectives rather than investing in a small number of users to receive higher quality broadband.