Contribution of telecommunications to rural economic development: variations on a theme?

The main contention of this paper is that the contribution that telecommunications can make to rural economic development will vary appreciably from one area to another, depending on the presence or absence of a range of other features of the rural area environment. An attempt to analyse variations in local telecommunications potential in the case of Scotland is reported upon. We also presents local area case studies in order to demonstrate the differing ways in which telecommunications is becoming central to the functioning of the rural economy. In so doing, it is argued that ‘the rural economy’ stereotype is belied by the evidence of rural areas’ integration into national and even global communications networks. The paper finally considers the considerable variability in the nature of the supply of telecommunications services to rural areas, and predicts some negative consequences for more remote rural areas in the shift occurring from a universally-provided integrated network to market-driven specialized network.