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A cost study of fixed broadband access networks for rural areas
Abstract
The deployment of high-capacity broadband access networks in rural areas in Europe lags behind that in urban and suburban areas. This study assesses the cost implications for the rollout of fixed access networks capable of providing citizens with downstream broadband capacities of 30 Mbps or 100 Mbps, which have been defined in the European Digital Agenda as targets that should be met by 2020. A cost model was employed to determine the cost of a home passed and the cost of a home connected for various fibre- and copper-based networks in rural areas. It was found that the cost of deploying a network outside a town or village in a rural area is on average 80% higher than the cost of deploying the network in the town or village. This situation may lead to a digital divide within the same rural area. For all the geotypes analysed, the following order of costs (in descending order) was identified: FTTH, FTTdp-Building, FTTdp-Street, FTTRN, FTTC and CO-VDSL. Given the long lengths of distribution, feeder and drop segments required, some network architectures will not be able to provide all households in some areas with the minimum bandwidth of 30 Mbps as defined in the European Digital Agenda. Overall, it is possible that operators will need to create a combination of various broadband access networks, due to the significant cost differences between networks. Policymakers will need to address several topics to promote the rollout of broadband networks in rural areas: how the digital divide within a rural area can be avoided; a National Broadband Plan that clearly addresses the provisioning of broadband in rural areas; elaboration of studies on broadband demand in rural areas; and the assessment of costs and technical capacity of wireless networks in rural areas.
... Different studies analyze the costs aspects of fiber-copper architectures and the cost comparison to FTTH networks, see, e.g. [3,9,10] and the references therein. ...
... Geotype network approaches are also used for cost assessment in hybrid fiber-copper networks with G.fast and the cost differences that can be achieved in comparison to going directly to FTTH networks as e.g., in [3,9,13]. Furthermore, authors in [14] and [15] differentiate geographic regions according to the cost factors of the study area, primarily driven by population density. ...
... Authors in [3] define six geotype networks for cost assessment of fiber to the distribution point networks with G.fast based on studies of networks in various regions in Europe. The same authors in [9] define six geotypes network classes for costs study of fixed broadband access in rural areas. It is worth mentioning that for the definition of geotypes the authors in [9] have employed the parameters of Analysys Mason study in [13]. ...
G.fast is a gap-bridging broadband technology on the way to a fully optical access network. G.fast is deployed in hybrid fiber-copper access networks and aiming to offer ubiquitous low-cost and high-speed broadband. For network operators, it is crucial to determine the location from where to deploy G.fast, the expected network coverage, and the expected bit rates. In this paper, we perform network modeling and statistically assess the performance of G.fast based on actual network data in four geotype classes: urban, suburban, dense rural, and sparse rural. For each class, we have collected the network data in the field with a substantial number of twisted-pair lines in Austria. Statistical analysis of loop lengths indicates that to improve the network coverage, the G.fast should be deployed in urban and suburban areas from the so-called remote node, whereas in rural areas from the last distribution point. Under such a deployment rule, the analysis by means of empirical complementary cumulative distribution functions shows a good network coverage for all network classes. Furthermore, the simulation results indicate a significant influence of cable types. Consequently, for the benefit of the cable community, we share measurements of 695 twisted-pairs of cable types relevant for G.fast deployment commonly found in the Austrian network.
... 3 The government's offer could not be regarded as excessive and challenging, considering that 85.5% of domestic broadband subscribers have already used at least 100 Mbps high-speed fixed Internet services. However, it is also evident that the cost of deploying a broadband network has grown sharply with the increase in the speed obligation (Stocker & Whalley, 2019), 4 even though broadband speed has a positive impact on the whole economy (Schneir & Xiong, 2016;Stocker & Whalley, 2018). Therefore, the high cost of providing broadband as a universal service at high speed could raise a question: Was the introduction of the USO in Korea appropriate? ...
... Most recent cost assessments of the broadband service offering analyze the establishment of broadband networks in rural areas where the broadband penetration rate is relatively low. First, Schneir and Xiong (2016) estimated the total costs of providing broadband services at 30 Mbps or 100 Mbps, the targets set for 2020 according to the European Digital Agenda. Their results show that the cost of deploying broadband is 80% higher on average in non-urban or rural areas compared to urban areas, and is the highest for Table 1 Previous studies on universal broadband service. ...
... Therefore, instead of redesigning the entire country, we chose an efficient approach to estimate the costs for the broadband USO accurately: We classified the country into several geo-types according to regional characteristics and selected sample areas to represent each geo-type. However, the geo-type methods employed in previous studies seemed unsuitable for this analysis because they were based on the geographical characteristics of the United Kingdom (Analysys Mason, 2008) or Europe (Schneir & Xiong, 2016). Thus, an appropriate approach was needed to classify the geo-types in Korea, where population density and regional characteristics differ. ...
While both broadband itself and its speed are becoming increasingly important in all spheres of society, the high cost of providing broadband as a universal service at high speed still raises a fundamental question: Is the introduction of the universal service obligation (USO) necessary? Therefore, the introduction of universal broadband service at 100 Mbps in Korea in 2020 could be a meaningful case study to evaluate the necessity of broadband USO. This study proposes an estimation model of the costs of providing universal broadband service in Korea and assesses whether the introduction of the broadband USO was appropriate in Korea. Since the proposed model was based on the bottom-up (BU) approach, which establishes an efficient network using the latest technologies, the estimated cost of providing universal broadband service nationwide in Korea is accurate and reliable. The main findings are threefold. First, the total cost of providing broadband USO at 100 Mbps through the fiber-to-the-home technology was about 1.1 trillion Korean Won. Since this is a relatively small amount compared with previous evaluations, it could be recovered within a reasonable period from the monthly broadband fee that subscribers pay. Therefore, the result supports the introduction of universal broadband service in Korea. Second, there was no significant difference in the average cost per building for broadband USO between 50 Mbps and 100 Mbps; thus, the Korean government's decision to set the broadband speed for broadband USO at 100 Mbps was reasonable, at least from a cost perspective. These results imply that developed countries with relatively high broadband penetration, in particular, could consider providing universal broadband services of at least 50 Mbps by fiber-based technologies. Lastly, although the total cost of offering fiber-based universal broadband services in Korea was acceptable, the government could also consider including wireless access technology as a technological alternative to reduce the costs of the USO policy.
... The research question of this paper is, what are the factors that explain the relationship between broadband access and affordability? The extant research has focused on broadband adoption in relationship to the urban and rural digital divide (Oyana, 2011;Pereira, 2016;Rendon Schneir & Xiong, 2016). Our research is different in that we examine the digital divide within a city and identify significant differences in access intra city related to issues of affordability, while still utilizing the five-factor framework. ...
... Further research has provided insights into the costs associated with the deployment of high capacity broadband and the cost implications in rural areas (Rendon Schneir & Xiong, 2016). Rendon Schneir and Xiong (2016) deployed a cost model to determine the price of a home connected with fiber and copper-based network in rural areas versus a town or village. ...
... The cost model utilizes a variety of elements. Ultimately, the researchers concluded, that the cost for deploying a network infrastructure is 80% higher in rural areas as compared to deployment in a town or village (Rendon Schneir & Xiong, 2016). The pressure to offer the same services for the same price in communities where the cost to deploy the technology is high will undoubtedly Table 1 Major factors and literature on the affordability of broadband. ...
Broadband access in the home is a necessity, especially since the COVID-19 pandemic. Increasingly, connectivity is of vital importance for school, work, family, and friends. Existing international research on the implementation of broadband has studied its adoption patterns with a focus on the rural/urban digital divide. This paper explores the digital divide in a case study of the seventh largest city, by population, in the United States; San Antonio is a majority-minority city where over half of the people are Hispanic. This paper focuses on the five key affordability factors that drive broadband adoption. Researchers test social exclusion theory, the structural facets of poverty and social marginality to ascertain its potential impact on broadband access. The authors conducted a survey in both English and Spanish to learn more about the affordability factors that influence the broadband digital divide. Through our analysis, we found evidence that four of the factors (geographical disparities, profit-based discrimination, technology deployment cost, and socio-economic factors) played a role in the digital divide in this case study. The results of this study demonstrate that the digital divide is not exclusively a rural/urban digital divide, but can also occur in an intra-city context. This is especially evident in low-income areas within the city because they have substantially lower broadband adoption rates. The results of this study demonstrate the importance of looking closely at issues of social exclusion of marginalized groups and the affordability of broadband access intra-city.
... Therefore, the longer the optic fibre network, the higher the infrastructure and optic fibre costs. Thus, the network topology is a paramount design characteristic not only in the costing methodology, but also in the performance of the network [17,18]. ...
... On the other hand, to the best of our knowledge, there are no attempts to provide a sorted communities list that states the order in which communities must be connected to the optic fibre network given the assumption, not taking into account in this work that the deployment company has all the monetary resources to build the network as a plot by the solution algorithms; see [6,7,16,18,39,40]. ...
Over the years, connection or access to the Internet has shown a positive impact on users in their everyday activities, such as entertainment, online education, online business, and productivity increments in their communities. Unfortunately, rural communities, which usually are far away from cities, cannot enjoy these benefits due to inefficient or inexistent Internet access. We propose an algorithm to select which communities to connect to maximise the number of people connected to the Internet while minimising the length of the network, or while maximising the number of connected communities, or while maximising the linked people per kilometre of fibre. The algorithm estimates the shortest driving distance and the minimum spanning tree. Then, the algorithm creates a subset of linked communities to select the next one to connect based on one of the three criteria described above. To test the algorithm, we used data from a set of rural communities in Mexico. The results showed that the minimum length of the network to connect the 597 rural communities (with 454,514 people) in our test case was 949.09 km. Moreover, there was a difference of 204.1 km in the network length to connect 90% of the total population depending on the selected criterion to connect the communities. If the decision-maker wants to connect 90% of the population, the maximum number of connected communities was 507 using the PC criterion.
... Araujo et al. pointed out in [16] that services on FTTC (Curb) would be 70% cheaper than 5G implementation and 20% less expensive than FTTH (Home). Although the main idea is boosting countrysides as potential high opportunity zones, not all operators expect to invest in high-cost infrastructure for low-density populations because its rollout may cost 80% higher than in urban zones [17]. ...
... Ioannou et al. in [38] stated that FTTdp (Distributed Point) solution using the G.fast standard is a cost-effective alternative to VDSL, which is the current widespread technology in Europe granting connectivity in the countryside. The authors acknowledge that FTTdP G.fast readily enables bandwidth upgrade, but the model is not cost-efficient in terms of investing in geographically sparse populations [16,17]. ...
Access to broadband communications in different parts of the world has become a priority for some governments and regulatory authorities around the world in recent years. Building new digital roads and pursuing a connected society includes looking for easier access to the internet. In general, not all areas where people congregate are fully covered, especially in rural zones, thus restricting access to data communications and inducing inequality. In the present review article, we have comprehensively surveyed the use of three platforms to deliver broadband services to such remote and low-income areas, and they are proposed as follows: unmanned aerial vehicles (UAV), altitude platforms (AP), and low-Earth orbit (LEO) satellites. These novel strategies support the connected and accessible world hypothesis. Hence, UAVs are considered a noteworthy solution since their efficient maneuverability can solve rural coverage issues or not-spots.
... Araujo et al. pointed out in [16] that services on FTTC (Curb) would be 70% cheaper than 5G implementation and 20% less expensive than FTTH (Home). Although the main idea is boosting countrysides as potential high opportunity zones, not all operators expect to invest in high-cost infrastructure for low-density populations because its rollout may cost 80% higher than in urban zones [17]. ...
... Ioannou et al. in [38] stated that FTTdp (Distributed Point) solution using the G.fast standard is a cost-effective alternative to VDSL, which is the current widespread technology in Europe granting connectivity in the countryside. The authors acknowledge that FTTdP G.fast readily enables bandwidth upgrade, but the model is not cost-efficient in terms of investing in geographically sparse populations [16,17]. ...
Access to broadband communications in different parts of the world has become a priority for some governments and regulatory authorities around the world in recent years. Building new digital roads and pursuing a connected society includes looking for easier access to the Internet. In general, not all the areas where people congregate are fully covered, especially in rural zones, thus restricting access to data communications and bringing inequality. In the present review article, we have comprehensively surveyed the use of three platforms to deliver broadband services to such remote and low-income areas are proposed: Unmanned Aerial Vehicles (UAV), Altitude Platforms (APS), and Low-Earth Orbit (LEO) satellites. These novel strategies support the connected and accessible world hypothesis. Hence UAVs are considered a noteworthy solution since their efficient maneuverability can aboard the rural coverage issues or not-spots.
... A number of different studies have been conducted to assess the feasibility of NGA investments in European areas. Schneir & Xiong (2016a); (2016b) have compared FTTH, FTTB, FTTdp, FTTdp-street, FTTC finding that FTTdp-street leads to significant cost reductions compared to FTTH and FTTB especially in rural areas. However, according to their findings VDSL (CO-VDSL and FTTC) was the most feasible option but not applicable in all types or rural areas (< 1 km cable length). ...
... For the FTTdp network architecture, it is assumed that a Distribution Point Unit (DPU) cabinet will be used which will be installed on the street between the distribution and the drop segment, with a maximum distance to the end user's premises up to 300 m. FTTdpstreet is preferred over FTTdp building due to higher cost savings especially in rural areas (Schneir & Xiong, 2016b;2016a). The DPU cabinet contains DPUs with up to eight ports, one for each subscriber connected, and an internal main distribution frame (MDF). ...
In rural areas in Europe, the deployment of High-Speed Broadband access networks lags far behind the urban and suburban areas due to difficulties of fiber rollout in the final meters. FTTC VDSL is the most widespread technology used for NGA network deployments in Europe but the coverage of VDSL networks is still limited in rural areas. FTTdp networks using G.fast have been proposed as a cost-effective and future-proof alternative to FTTH and FTTB especially in rural areas where FTTC and VDSL cannot always deliver service speeds of 30Mbps which is the minimum bandwidth defined in the European Digital Agenda as a target to be met by 2020. However, the new target of EU Commission for Gigabit Society and 100Mbps connections, upgradable to 1Gbps, for all households in 2025 are unlikely to be achieved by VDSL Vectoring and other copper-based technologies.
On the other hand, Fixed Wireless Access (FWA) networks based on LTE technology can be used as a “last mile” solution to provide high-speed broadband access to areas where fixed broadband is limited. LTE technology offers high-speed connections able to support internet browsing and IP services, while it can theoretically support up to 300 Mbps depending on network load and sharing. Thus, it can be considered a viable alternative to other fixed network solutions especially when considering future upgrades to 5G networks that promise gigabit speeds per user.
In this paper, a techno-economic study is performed to assess the feasibility of an FWA network deployment based on LTE technology in comparison to FTTdp G.fast and FTTC VDSL network rollout for delivering service speeds of 30Mbps in rural areas. A variety of different population density, competition and regulation policy scenarios is considered. Cash flow results are presented and standard financial indexes for the business cases are discussed. The results are being assessed through a sensitivity and risk analysis to determine the most influential factors on the return on the investment. Furthermore, the (non) profitability of these cases and the subsidization needed from structural funds are analyzed. The results are aimed to contribute to the debate over network evolution scenarios among academia, industry, regulators, policy makers and governments.
... Extant studies related to broadband adoption in relation to the urban and rural digital divide can be found (Oyana, 2011;Pereira, 2016;Rendon Schneir and Xiong, 2016). Recent research points out that profit-based discrimination occurs in isolated and remote regions with a high percentage of low-income minorities in comparison to large metropolitan areas (Oyana, 2011). ...
Depopulated rural or post-industrial areas, which are often low-income with fewer job opportunities, represent an open challenge for the European Union. Sharp demographic declines especially in Eastern and Southern Europe, due to the intra-EU migration of younger, skilled workers from these areas have become a serious obstacle to the sustainable development of many EU lower-income regions. The European Parliament highlights the gap in ICT connectivity among other reasons. This paper aims to provide empirical evidence, by applying Panel Data Analysis, that digitalisation of European NUTS-2 regions with lower incomes via Broadband Access may contribute to reversing negative demographic trends.
... For this study, the existing backhaul could either be wireless or wired technology that may also require upgrading. We focus on solutions with sustainable data rates higher than 30 Mbps per user [40], [99], [100], with peak cell capacity of more than 150 Mbps for low-frequency bands (<1 GHz) and more than 1500 Mbps for mid-frequency bands (>1 GHZ and <6 GHz) [101]. ...
p>How cost-efficient are potential infrastructure sharing business models for the 5G/6G era? How should telecommunications regulators formulate a national policy to improve mobile broadband connectivity? These are significant questions that need to be addressed if we are to deliver universal, affordable broadband and achieve Target 9c of the UN Sustainable Development Goals.</p
... Calls for national broadband strategies have received particular attention (Schneir and Xiong, 2016), especially in Canada, where pressure for better services is strong (Auditor General of Canada, 2018;CRTC, 2016). In 2016, the Canadian Radio-television Telecommunications Commission (CRTC) recognised affordable broadband access as a need and right of today's world (CRTC, 2016). ...
... The cost of broadband service can also be an issue in rural settings. A cost model developed by Rendon Schneir and Xiong (2016) indicated that the deployment costs for broadband infrastructure in rural areas are 80% higher than deployment in most urban areas. As a result, the potential for lower broadband service levels coupled with higher access costs continue to be issues in equitable access to broadband internet service. ...
The COVID-19 pandemic forced the temporary closing of many brick and mortar school buildings in fall 2020 while substantially changing the delivery of instruction for students with and without disabilities in rural schools. This article describes the qualitative results of an online study completed between August 2020 and October 2020 that investigated rural educational leaders’ perceptions of the use of online instructional technologies before and during the COVID-19 pandemic. Rural educational leaders also shared how special education services were delivered and how parents felt about their children’s learning. The early school year in fall 2020 was a critical period for rural educational leaders as they were managing persistent and evolving issues related to providing quality educational opportunities to all students. This article provides a unique portrait of that crucial moment for educators, students, and parents.
... It is a type of cabling medium that uses copper wires to signal the data and control bits between network devices. It consists of a series of individual copper wires that forms circuits dedicated to specific signalling purposes [63], [64]. Data are transmitted on copper cables as electrical pulses. ...
A smart grid provides a bidirectional flow of electricity and information whilst ensuring well-balanced electricity supply and demand. The key enabler for the smart grid is its robust communication infrastructure. Choosing the best communication technology for the smart grid is crucial as it involves a mixture of critical and non-critical traffic. This study provides a comprehensive review on smart grid communication and its possible solutions for a reliable two-way communication toward supporting diversified power grid applications. Existing networking methods along with their advantages and weaknesses are highlighted for future research directions. The communication network architecture in the smart grid, with details on each networking technology, switching methods and medium for data communication, is critically reviewed to identify the existing research gaps. A discussion on issues and challenges encountered in smart grid communication for current implementation is highlighted together with the recommendations for further improvement. Overall, the highlighted issues and recommendations from this study are useful to researchers, technology providers and industries to develop new communication technologies for the smart grid that will provide reliable, robust, and suitable two-way communication in the future.
... A research (Riva Atul Wahab, 2016) shows that the reason why people do not have internet access is because of the high service costs. Rendon Schneir & Xiong (2016) found that network deployment costs in European sub-cities or rural areas are on average 80% higher than deployment costs in urban or rural network, leading to a digital divide within the same rural areas. Infrastructure development to provide these services requires large investment costs, where the largest cost (70--80%) incurred in public works (for example: excavation, pole installation). ...
This study is conducted to see the potential demand with the characteristics of the campus environment, industrial environment, and tourism environment on internet fixed broadband use, where the objective of this survey is limited to households, individuals and businesses. Analysis is carried out in a descriptive manner based on the results of qualitative discussions by experts which is reinforced by the findings of the survey results. The survey results show that the internet utilization by the public (households, businesses) is mostly for communication and entertainment, so that the cellular internet is considered adequate for public's internet need. This is relevant to the public’s opinion that 87.9% of the internet needs are met when using cellular phone. There are 3 (three) perceptible reasons of why respondents choose not to subscribe to Fixed broadband internet, namely: 1) There is no necessity for subscription, 2) Lack of Knowledge/Information related to Broadband Fixed internet, and 3) Expensive Prices. The potential demand for each characteristic is always there, however, the most dominant one comes from the businesses, such as cafes/eateries, food stores, gift shops, photocopying businesses, vehicle rental services, travel businesses, etc.
... Examining the academics' perceptions regarding the available e-resources at the University of Venda (UNIVEN) was significant because of the geographical location of the university and the money spent by the university towards e-resource subscriptions. South African universities spend lots of money on e-resource subscriptions and those located in rural areas even more so, as the cost of internet access is higher than in urban areas [3][4] . ...
This study examined the perceptions of academic researchers regarding electronic resources (e-resources) provided by the library at the University of Venda (UNIVEN), South Africa. The quantitative research approach and survey research design were adopted to conduct the investigation. Data was collected using a self-administered structured questionnaire randomly distributed to 45 UNIVEN academics. The findings of this study revealed that although academics at UNIVEN find e-resources easy to use, believe the resources improve academic performance, and frequently encouraged postgraduate students to use them, the majority of them had plagiarism concerns and were only moderately satisfied with available e-resources at UNIVEN. This study recommends that the university library should train academics on plagiarism detection. In addition, the library should adopt innovative ways of improving e-resource services, such as providing an Online Public Access Catalogue (OPAC) with advanced and federated search capabilities.
... Rather, they conclude that a "best-fit" approach must evaluate multiple technology options to determine which may be best suited for a given area. Similarly, Schneir and Xiong (2016) note that providers may need to consider deploying a combination of different types of broadband services to reach rural areas, due to the significant differences in deployment costs across technology types. Fig. 4 illustrates an example of this issue in Grady County (Pop. ...
The Broadband Deployment Accuracy and Technological Availability (DATA) Act signed into law in March 2020 requires the development of a national “broadband serviceable location fabric (BSLF)” containing georeferenced information on all locations where fixed broadband could be installed. This represents a significant shift from prior datasets, where broadband availability was gauged from the estimated number of people/households in each Census Block (i.e., without geolocations). The inclusion of agricultural structures is particularly important, since broadband investment in agricultural zones has been limited to date. We use an early version of the BSLF for the state of Oklahoma, produced by CostQuest Associates, to demonstrate the opportunities and issues that may arise for broadband researchers and policymakers as the DATA Act becomes reality. We highlight four main takeaways: (1) consideration of non-residential units greatly impacts overall availability estimates; (2) data quality (and quantity) varies greatly across counties; (3) BSLF residential unit counts differ from FCC or Census estimates; and (4) practitioners will still need service-area shapefiles/addresses from providers to use the fabric most effectively.
... Calls for national broadband strategies have received particular attention (Schneir and Xiong, 2016), especially in Canada, where pressure for better services is strong (Auditor General of Canada, 2018;CRTC, 2016). In 2016, the Canadian Radio-television Telecommunications Commission (CRTC) recognised affordable broadband access as a need and right of today's world (CRTC, 2016). ...
Uneven access to broadband has deepened a divide that sees rural residents struggling with digital technologies (DTs). This situation has resulted in the emergence of creative attitudes to take advantage of the potential benefits of DTs. In this article, a continuum of community capitals framed by governance characteristics is proposed to analyse the impact of the utilisation of DTs in rural communities. Focus groups and interviews were carried out with youth, seniors, and businesses in three rural communities of southern Manitoba, Canada. The results show that the interactions between the resources of rural communities are being re-shaped by the progressive adoption and utilisation of DTs. Three conditions to take full advantage of rural digital opportunities are reliable access, affordable access, and digital skills. Nuanced findings that contribute to explaining the ambivalent effects of DTs encourage the pursuit of additional investigations to further refine the proposed continuum of community capitals.
... Most cost-related literature around broadband expansion are from industry and government sources and focus on national cost estimates in meeting particular rural broadband speed and/or technology mandates based on simulated or survey data (Glass, 2000;Glass et al., 2003Glass et al., , 2014Ellershaw et al., 2009). A more limited literature exists on business and cost analyses of RBB systems and deployment strategies, and generally focus on a particular service area and/or broadband technology (Schneir and Xiong, 2016;Pratt, 2019). ...
Sufficient access to and utilization of broadband is an ongoing concern for rural economic development. Using a rural region in Northern New York (USA), we consider the investment and operational costs of a broadband cooperative and determine service prices for which it is financially viable. Service prices need to increase 75%–131%, depending on grant restrictions, relative to existing market prices for a new broadband cooperative to become financially feasible. Put differently, the cooperative would not cash flow at market prices unless there was at least 14 potential subscribers per mile at a 62% take rate. For a cooperative, the grant restriction that providers offer a minimum level of speed at a maximum price results in a high level of subsidization by high-speed to low-speed members to support the business. Given grant funding and member equity investments, financial infeasibility has little to do with construction costs, than with annual operational and maintenance costs required to sustain the system long term. More reasonable feasibility scenarios occur for existing utility cooperatives expanding services into broadband, particularly areas with a high proportion of high-speed, year-round users and strong take rates. Consideration of public benefits of broadband arguably needs to be added to the equation, particularly surrounding access to healthcare and educational purposes, and as a prerequisite to supporting taxpayer-funded public-private partnerships to expand broadband services. Policy levers to eliminate or subsidize property taxes and pole rental costs reduce cash flow prices considerably; however, feasibility is highly sensitive to assumed take rates.
... A research (Riva Atul Wahab, 2016) shows that the reason why people do not have internet access is because of the high service costs. Rendon Schneir & Xiong (2016) found that network deployment costs in European sub-cities or rural areas are on average 80% higher than deployment costs in urban or rural network, leading to a digital divide within the same rural areas. Infrastructure development to provide these services requires large investment costs, where the largest cost (70--80%) incurred in public works (for example: excavation, pole installation). ...
p class="JGI-AbstractIsi">This study is conducted to see the potential demand with the characteristics of the campus environment, industrial environment, and tourism environment on internet fixed broadband use, where the objective of this survey is limited to households, individuals and businesses. Analysis is carried out in a descriptive manner based on the results of qualitative discussions by experts which is reinforced by the findings of the survey results. The survey results show that the internet utilization by the public (households, businesses) is mostly for communication and entertainment, so that the cellular internet is considered adequate for public's internet need. This is relevant to the public’s opinion that 87.9% of the internet needs are met when using cellular phone. There are 3 (three) perceptible reasons of why respondents choose not to subscribe to Fixed broadband internet, namely: 1) There is no necessity for subscription, 2) Lack of Knowledge/Information related to Broadband Fixed internet, and 3) Expensive Prices. The potential demand for each characteristic is always there, however, the most dominant one comes from the businesses, such as cafes/eateries, food stores, gift shops, photocopying businesses, vehicle rental services, travel businesses, etc. </p
... The demand for broadband services via satellite communication across Indonesia is growing rapidly year by year [2], [3]. It happens because the demand not only focuses on the dense urban/urban area as an attractive market but also rural/remote areas [4]- [6]. In line with the increasing demand for broadband services, the Indonesian government through the working program named "Nawacita" has a plan to even out the broadband access throughout Indonesia [7]. ...
... Michailidis et al. analyze the factors affecting adoption of mobile technology in rural areas of Macedonia, Greece, using survey data on 490 residents, and show that different factors influence farms, rural enterprises, and rural households [3]. Schneir and Xiong show that the deployment of high-capacity broadband access networks in European rural areas lags behind urban and suburban areas because of an 80% cost difference [4]. Freeman et al. point to the inferior availability and quality of Internet connections in rural areas of Australia, including slow and unreliable fixed wireless and satellite connections [5]. ...
The popular press and academic literature show that the urban-rural divide persists with regard to recent telecommunications technologies, such as broadband and wireless service. As was the case for landline telephony, this lack of deployment in rural areas is rooted in cost differentials and lack of agglomeration economies. This paper provides historical insights on this divide, using 1990 data on voice communications in a region located in the northeastern United States, and investigates (1) whether there are differences in telecommunications usage between urban and rural firms, (2) whether advanced telecommunications technologies provide an economic advantage to rural firms, and (3) what are the factors encouraging and inhibiting the provision of these technologies in rural areas. Exchange-level data on telephone usage by eleven economic sectors are first linked, through regression analysis, to data characterizing the exchange employment, rural character, availability of advanced technology, and geography. Rural activities turn out to use telecommunications less than urban ones in the absence of advanced technologies, but the latter tend to significantly increase usage. Next, a logit model is estimated to link the deployment of one advanced technology-digital switching-to market and geographical variables. The results tend to support the idea that an advanced telecommunications infrastructure in rural areas may be important to attract activities that make heavy use of telecommunications, but also that its provision is inhibited by the traditional rural barriers of distance and low population density.
... Policymakers will need to address several issues to promote the deployment of broadband networks in rural areas: the development of broadband demands studies in these places, defining how the digital divide can be avoided within the same rural area, and the cost assessment and technical capacity of wireless networks in rural areas [59]. ...
The COVID-19 pandemic has revealed the digital vulnerability of many citizens of the rural world. This article identifies and analyzes the proposals made by academic literature to overcome the digital divide in the European rural world for the five-year period 2016-2020. A scoping review has been carried out according to the PRISMA methodology in the two dimensions of the digital divide: access and connectivity, and use and exploitation. Online databases were used to identify scientific articles from which, after screening, 28 key documents were selected. The results update Salemink systematic review of articles published between 1991 and 2014 on digital and rural development in Western countries and it also intends to go beyond by extracting recommendations. A variety of political, social, educational, technical and economic issues has been exposed, with a common emphasis on the empowerment of rural populations. The findings provide actionable evidence and proposals to facilitate decision-making in current policy information to overcome rural digital divide. From them, seven recommendations that could have a wide and rapid impact to minimize the effects of the COVID-19 pandemic linked to the rural digital divide are synthesized. Three lines of action in the medium term are also proposed: the evaluation of national and regional public policies; the consideration of digital inclusion as a potential instrument to reduce rural depopulation; and the training in advanced digital skills to improve the social communication processes, considered key to promote empowerment and entrepreneurship.
... The most important parts of these investments are foreseen to come from the private sector, especially from the broadband providers. However, the private sector considers the rural areas as a non-viable market because the cost of deploying a network outside the urban and suburban areas is on average 80% higher (Schneir & Xiong, 2016). Moreover, a study carried by the European investment bank showed that 41% of the entire broadband investment should be allocated to rural areas in order to offer high-speed broadband to all European citizens. ...
Bridging the broadband digital divide between urban and rural areas in Europe is one of the main targets of the Digital Agenda for Europe. Though many technological options are proposed in literature, satellite communication has been identified as the only possible solution for the most rural areas, due to its global coverage. However, deploying an end-to-end satellite solution might, in some cases, not be cost-effective. The aim of this study is to give insights into the economic effectiveness of integrating satellite communications into 4G networks in order to connect the most rural areas (also referred to as white areas) in Europe. To this end, this paper proposes a converged solution that combines satellite communication as a backhaul network with 4G as a fronthaul network to bring enhanced broadband connectivity to European rural areas, along with a techno-economic model to analyse the economic viability of this integration. The model is based on a Total Cost of Ownership (TCO) model for 5 years, taking into account both capital and operational expenditures, and aims to calculate the TCO as well as the Average Cost Per User (ACPU) for the studied scenarios. We evaluate the suggested model by simulating a hypothetical use case for two scenarios. The first scenario is based on a radio access network connecting to the 4G core network via a satellite link. Results for this scenario show high operational costs. In order to reduce these costs, we propose a second scenario, consisting of caching the popular content on the edge to reduce the traffic carried over the satellite link. This scenario demonstrates a significant operational cost decrease (more than 60%), which also means a significant ACPU decrease. We evaluate the robustness of the results by simulating for a range of population densities, hereby also providing an indication of the economic viability of our proposed solution across a wider range of areas.
... Typically, assigning higher weights to criteria such as the achieved geographical coverage and capacity/speed guarantees, lower ones to minimum Quality of Service guarantees, data caps and latency will favour bids emphasizing mobile infrastructure. 10 With reference to the DAE objectives, [71] estimate that the cost of deploying a wired (either fibre or copper-based) network in a rural area is on average 80% higher than doing the same within a town or village. ...
The literature on broadband policies has been focusing on the possible role of mobile broadband as a means for addressing geographical digital divide in areas with no or inadequate fixed broadband infrastructure coverage. Broadband plans designed by most of the industrialized countries take the substitutability between fixed and mobile technologies for granted, with restrictions essentially relating only to bandwidth performance. We explore the determinants of individuals' private access (away from work) to the Internet with the smartphone through a mobile broadband connection, focusing on the role played by Internet uses and taking into account the availability of a fixed broadband connection at home. The results of our econometric exercise, carried out on microdata referred to Italian individuals, provide original and interesting evidence: a complementarity effect between mobile and fixed broadband is found for browsing, video streaming, gaming and cloud services; a substitution effect emerges for social networking and music streaming. Such increasing complexity of individuals’ broadband usage patterns should be acknowledged in the way broadband coverage is mapped and policies designed, adopting a more ecosystem-oriented approach which integrates supply- and demand-side features. A first step in this direction is the inclusion of some, so far neglected, key-attributes of the demand (data traffic allowance, latency, ease of interconnection with Internet capable devices) among the relevant dimensions of policy design.
... The most important parts of these investments are foreseen to come from the private sector, especially from the broadband providers. However, the private sector considers the rural areas as a non-viable market because the cost of deploying a network outside the urban and suburban areas is on average 80% higher (Schneir & Xiong, 2016). Moreover, a study carried by the European investment bank showed that 41% of the entire broadband investment should be allocated to rural areas in order to offer high-speed broadband to all European citizens. ...
Bridging the broadband digital divide between urban and rural areas in Europe is one of the main targets of the Digital Agenda for Europe. Though many technological options are proposed in literature, satellite communication has been identified as the only possible solution for the most rural areas, due to its global coverage. However, deploying an end-to-end satellite solution might, in some cases, not be cost-effective. The aim of this study is to give insights into the economic effectiveness of integrating satellite communications into 4G networks in order to connect the most rural areas (also referred to as white areas) in Europe. To this end, this paper proposes a converged solution that combines satellite communication as a backhaul network with 4G as a fronthaul network to bring enhanced broadband connectivity to European rural areas, along with a techno-economic model to analyse the economic viability of this integration. The model is based on a Total Cost of Ownership (TCO) model for 5 years, taking into account both capital and operational expenditures, and aims to calculate the TCO as well as the Average Cost Per User (ACPU) for the studied scenarios. We evaluate the suggested model by simulating a hypothetical use case for two scenarios. The first scenario is based on a radio access network connecting to the 4G core network via a satellite link. Results for this scenario show high operational costs. In order to reduce these costs, we propose a second scenario, consisting of caching the popular content on the edge to reduce the traffic carried over the satellite link. This scenario demonstrates a significant operational cost decrease (more than 60%), which also means a significant ACPU decrease. We evaluate the robustness of the results by simulating for a range of population densities, hereby also providing an indication of the economic viability of our proposed solution across a wider range of areas.
... Bouckert et al. (2010), Falch (2007 and Polykalas & Vlachos (2006) identify regulatory and market settings as significant determinants of penetration. The spatial dimensions of the 'digital divide' have been a persistent concern of academic analysts and governmental bodies, and some of this literature has drawn attention to differences in broadband prices and speed between urban and rural areas (Schneir & Xiong 2016;Rogers 2016;RTIRC 2015). Polykalas & Vlachos (2006) examine broadband competition and broadband penetration in fifteen member states of the European Union (EU) that share the same regulatory framework. ...
Broadband prices differ significantly throughout the world, however discussion of why receives little attention in the academic and policy literature. Focussing on landline broadband, this exploratory article helps fill a knowledge gap by discussing some methodologies for comparing broadband prices between countries, and suggesting five factors that influence broadband prices: demand, supply, average price level, regulation, and physical/infrastructural factors. In this discussion, we also examine where Australia sits in relation to global broadband prices.
... Consequently, this initiative has contributed to alleviating the divide between rural and urban areas across the northern England. Furthermore, being committed to serve 100% of the premises in each parish with "no exclusions because a property is too far away or too difficult to reach" (B4RN, 2013, p. 3), B4RN has eliminated the access divide within its target communities (Rendon Schneir & Xiong, 2016). ...
Community broadband networks have recently emerged as an alternative to both public and private players in the delivery of superfast broadband in rural areas. The impact of these initiatives upon the rural digital divide is, however, largely unknown. Focusing on Broadband for the Rural North (B4RN), a community FTTH network in the UK, this paper explores how a community-led initiative can contribute to bridging the access, adoption and outcome divides in rural areas. Following a bottom-up and demand-driven model, B4RN has managed to expand the supply and demand of superfast broadband in remote areas previously ignored by commercial and subsidised deployments. Its overall impact upon the rural digital divide has been constrained by the small scale of the project as well as its reliance on private contributions. Although it may not be replicable on a national scale and suitable for large organisations, the approach developed by B4RN confirms that involving local communities in the design and execution of broadband projects help minimising both access and adoption divides in rural communities. Keywords: broadband, community networks, UK, rural digital divide. 2 0. Executive summary Community broadband networks have long existed as an alternative to commercial ISPs, but only recently emerged as response to both market and government failures in the provision of rural broadband. This paper aims to explore how community broadband networks contribute to reducing the rural digital divide. This analysis focused on a single case study, Broadband for the Rural North (B4RN), a community FTTH network in the UK. A combination of interviews and ethnographic analysis was employed to understand how this initiative has addressed the market failures underlying the access and adoption divide in the rural UK. B4RN adopted an innovative business model, based on demand aggregation and the involvement of local volunteers, that enabled the company to deploy FTTH in areas otherwise underserved. The project has constantly expanded over the year, thereby reducing the rural access divide in the affected communities. Nevertheless, its overall impact at national level has been questioned, as the coverage of B4RN's network remains limited in terms of geographic scope and number of connected premises. On the demand side, B4RN actively supported broadband adoption and digital inclusion by providing tailored guides and weekly trainings. Although it may be early to assess its overall impact upon the adoption and outcome divide, this case study proved the potential of digital technologies in a rural context and the importance of engaging with local communities when designing and executing broadband projects in rural areas. 3
... As a result, commercial providers are unlikely to invest in rural broadband (Whitacre, 2010). A divide may also emerge within rural communities, as broadband is made available to the main villages while remotely located premises remain unserved (Rendon Schneir & Xiong, 2016). ...
Smart farming, e-health and e-commerce are just some of the multiple opportunities that digitisation offers to rural communities and businesses. Their ability though to participate in the digital economy is often compromised by a lack of high-speed connectivity. Despite the numerous initiatives launched over the years to promote broadband diffusion, such as BTOP in the US and BDUK in the UK, a large proportion of the rural population in the United States and the European Union (EU) are still unable to connect to fiber and 4G networks. As new measures in support of rural broadband have recently been announced by the US government and the EU, further research is needed to understand what business models and public policies are most likely to close the digital divide in rural areas. The evaluation of past initiatives can provide useful insights to enhance the effectiveness of future interventions. Drawing on research presented by Shaffer and Strover et al. at TPRC 2017, this paper further explores how community-led and public initiatives can contribute to promoting the adoption of broadband. Our analysis focuses on two projects deploying fixed broadband networks in the rural United Kingdom: Broadband for the Rural North (B4RN) and Connecting Cumbria. The former is a cooperative fiber-to-the-home network financed and built by local residents in the Northwest of England, while the latter is a public-private partnership between British Telecom and Cumbria County Council, providing fiber broadband in areas excluded from commercial deployments. These case studies exemplify how the combination of top-down and bottom-up initiatives enabled the UK to expand the coverage of superfast broadband (defined in the UK as being a download speed of at least 30 Mbit/s) from 22% to 66% of the rural premises between 2014 and 2017. Based on participant observation and interviews with multiple stakeholders, this paper explores the business models adopted by these initiatives and compares their outcomes in terms of broadband coverage and adoption. Despite achieving its coverage goals, Connecting Cumbria did not fully meet the expectations of rural communities, still unsatisfied with the speed available or even unable to access fast broadband. Some villages decided to join B4RN and subsequently leveraged their own skills and financial resources to build a community FTTH network covering every premise. In both cases, the management of expectations and the engagement with broadband users emerged as key success factors. These case studies offer unique insights into the performance of community-led initiatives and public-private partnerships, thereby contributing to the ongoing research and policy debate on the role of local communities and public authorities in broadband markets. By analysing the interplay between public sector, private suppliers and local communities, this research also provides useful recommendations for policymakers and practitioners dealing with the rollout of rural broadband. Furthermore, it contributes to the ongoing research on the adoption of innovation in peripheral areas, by exploring how digital skills develop and disseminate in rural communities.
... New network construction aimed at decreasing the rural digital divide requires vast fixed-capital investments. The investment costs for rural connections are on average 80% higher compared to these costs in urban areas (Schneir and Xiong, 2016). Some far-off premises are extremely more expensive to cover using fixed broadband networks, as digging costs are very high (Casier et al., 2008). ...
... Source: NESTA (2015) Nevertheless, both incumbents and their competitors have historically focused on the most densely populated areas (Grubesic & Murray, 2004). The economies of scale in broadband provision are a major deterrent to private investment in rural areas (Glass & Stefanova, 2012), which can even experience an internal digital divide due to the excessive costs of connecting geographically dispersed premises (Rendon Schneir & Xiong, 2016). Where the market fails to provide superfast broadband, public intervention is justified to complement private investment (European Commission, 2013), by providing financial support or even developing public networks (Frieden, 2013;Gómez-Barroso & Feijóo, 2009). ...
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.
... Bouckert et al. (2010), Falch (2007 and Polykalas & Vlachos (2006) identify regulatory and market settings as significant determinants of penetration. The spatial dimensions of the 'digital divide' have been a persistent concern of academic analysts and governmental bodies, and some of this literature has drawn attention to differences in broadband prices and speed between urban and rural areas (Schneir & Xiong 2016;Rogers 2016;RTIRC 2015). Polykalas & Vlachos (2006) examine broadband competition and broadband penetration in fifteen member states of the European Union (EU) that share the same regulatory framework. ...
span style="line-height: 150%; font-family: 'Georgia','serif'; font-size: 11pt; mso-fareast-font-family: Calibri; mso-bidi-font-family: 'Times New Roman'; mso-ansi-language: EN-AU; mso-fareast-language: EN-US; mso-bidi-language: AR-SA;">Broadband prices differ significantly throughout the world, however discussion of why receives little attention in the academic and policy literature. Focussing on landline broadband, this exploratory article helps fill a knowledge gap by discussing some methodologies for comparing broadband prices between countries, and suggesting five factors that influence broadband prices: demand, supply, average price level, regulation, and physical/infrastructural factors. In this discussion, we also examine where Australia sits in relation to global broadband prices.</span
Purpose
The authors aim to analyze the inequality in accessing distance learning during COVID-19 school closures.
Design/methodology/approach
The authors use the Household Pulse Survey, which is an effort by the United States (US) government to measure the well-being of American families during the COVID-19 pandemic. The authors employ a regression analysis to estimate the inequality in accessing distance learning by race and household income.
Findings
Disadvantaged children from nonwhite and low-income families have much less access to distance learning, including less access to online classes, digital devices and the Internet. Schools are critical providers of the Internet and digital devices to children from disadvantaged households. Schools and parents devote more attention to these nonwhite children by spending extra time on their learning activities.
Originality/value
This paper estimates the inequality in accessing distance learning during the COVID-19 crisis. Also, the authors analyze the responses of schools and parents toward this inequality.
Despite broadband being essential infrastructure for conducting basic socio-economic activities and reducing inequality and the digital divide, expanding broadband coverage in rural areas remains a significant challenge in many countries due to high deployment costs. South Korea, a developed country in terms of fixed broadband penetration, implemented two policies for rural broadband via fiber access networks simultaneously during the COVID-19 pandemic. One is the universal broadband service at 100 Mbps speed introduced in 2020, and the other is the rural broadband project in terms of a public-private partnership (PPP) that proceeded from August 2020 to 2022. While both policies contribute to reducing the broadband gap between the urban and the rural in the country, it is still important to find the optimal cost-effective combination of the plural rural policies as much as possible from the cost perspective. Accordingly, this study proposes an investment cost estimation model for deploying rural broadband via fiber networks in South Korea and evaluates whether implementing two rural broadband policies in the country is cost-effective. The proposed model is designed according to the bottom-up approach, which involves building an efficient network with the latest technologies; thus, it gives a more accurate and reliable estimation of the investment cost of building rural broadband in the South Korean territory. The significant findings of this study are twofold. First, the PPP-based project could make the participating internet service providers (ISPs) deploy broadband at a cost-effective level, similar or lower to the universal service, and then recover the investment cost per building within a reasonable period. Thus, the result implies that governments need to consider the PPP-based project as an effective measure to deploy rural broadband, in addition to the introduction of universal service. Implementing multiple broadband policies to expand rural broadband coverage could be a reasonable and practical approach to improving broadband availability. Second, the governments still needs to make efforts to solve the complicated difficulties in rural areas in South Korea where rural-related broadband policies are still challenging to implement. This study confirmed that in some regions, the PPP-based project was still inferior to universal service in terms of average investment cost. In contrast, universal service had significant constraints to providing broadband because of the end-users cost burden, resulting in low broadband adoption. Therefore, the government needs to consider some measures to increase broadband availability and broadband adoption, such as widening the rural areas under the jurisdiction of participating ISPs, decreasing the proportion of participating ISPs bearing the investment cost of deploying broadband, and improving the cost burden of the end-users of universal service in some limited areas.
The COVID−19 pandemic brought the digital divide to center stage. This article investigates whether the crisis disrupted mobile broadband infrastructure, taking Georgia as a case study. We hypothesize that the pandemic could have slowed down ongoing infrastructure provision initiatives, as in other segments of the economy, or spurred them by bringing renewed attention and resources to overcoming the digital divide. We find that the per capita antenna gap between rural and micropolitan areas as compared to metropolitan has drastically reduced during the pandemic. Long−Term Evolution expansion was positively associated with the presence of vulnerable populations with variation across areas.
Since the COVID-19 pandemic, access to adequate, affordable, reliable broadband has become essential to many aspects of modern life. However, while urban centers in Canada already benefit from high-speed broadband services, many rural/remote and Northern communities face increasingly concentrated spaces of exclusion associated with digital divides. Inequalities in broadband services in Northern Canada have long been recognized by the federal government, which has initiated policies, regulations and funding programs to support the deployment of better connectivity infrastructure and services. Historically, many of these initiatives reflect a top-down approach that fails to consider the diversity of the communities and regions they are designed to support. Here, we focus on a case study of a policy consultation held by the national telecommunications regulator in an effort to learn current issues and challenges in the North. Consistent with existing research, our findings revealed that the most frequently reported challenges are the high cost of access, slow speeds, and limited competition. We also point out fewer submissions from smaller rural communities and argue that policymakers and researchers should pay closer attention to place-based challenges identified in different types of communities, and adopt more precise engagement tools and processes to encourage input from community members.
We analyze the inequality in accessing distance learning during COVID-19 school closures. We find that disadvantaged children from nonwhite and low-income families have much less access to distance learning, including less access to online classes, digital devices, and internet. Yet, we observe that schools are critical providers of internet and digital devices to children from disadvantaged households. We also find that schools and parents devote more attention to these nonwhite children by spending extra time on their learning activities.
Although digitisation offers numerous opportunities for rural areas, they still lag behind cities in terms of access and adoption of Internet-based services. This divide is the result of multiple market failures in both the demand and supply of broadband access, which have been addressed through public, private and community-led initiatives. Based on interviews and ethnographic analysis, this paper explores how community networks and public-private partnerships have contributed to promoting the delivery and adoption of superfast broadband across the rural UK. The case study analysis compares the outcomes of each model, highlighting their strengths and weaknesses. Although expanding the coverage of superfast broadband across the county, the public-private partnership did not solve the access divide afflicting the hardest-to-reach areas. Some of the latter were served by the community network, which relied on volunteers and demand aggregation to reduce the cost of fibre rollout. The scalability of this approach, however, has yet to be demonstrated. On the demand side, both initiatives achieved a high take-up proving that the rural ‘adoption’ divide has decreased over the years. Nevertheless, more needs to be done to ensure that rural communities and businesses are able to leverage the benefits deriving from superfast broadband.
ABSTRACT A need exists for the accurate measurement of the rural digital divide to most effectively direct public policy assistance. This study examined: Can the rural-urban digital divide be accurately measured? Two pilot studies were performed to develop, test, and evaluate an inexpensive technology alongside of social science metrics. This methodology measures from the consumer's perspective, matching broadband quality and availability measures with quality of life metrics. The successes and iterative improvement of the scientific approach is detailed. Recommendations for future projects that measure the rural-urban digital divide are provided for consideration to policymakers and researchers.
This paper analyses the deployment of high-speed broadband networks in the European Union (EU). Its aim is to assess the investment required to meet the targets set by the European Commission (EC) for 2025, within the framework of the European Gigabit Society (EGS). This plan aims to ensure the availability and take-up of very high-capacity fixed and wireless networks, in both urban and rural areas, among households and the main socio-economic drivers. The estimation model presented here uses a methodology supported by data at the local (NUTS3) level to give a bottom-up estimation of the investment gap for each of the EGS objectives, using three different scenarios depending on the mix of wired and wireless technologies offered. The methodology and estimation model used in the paper are examined against other examples and assumptions available in the literature. We also offer a dynamic perspective on the analysis of the evolution of this investment gap over the years 2017–2019, which includes an assessment of the usefulness of these estimation models. The paper concludes by identifying the need for new measures to attract investment from public and private sources, mostly in rural areas, since purely market-driven initiatives fall short by about two-thirds of the required total investment. We also highlight how estimation models, despite their apparent complexity and number of assumptions, have a proven capacity to provide sufficiently accurate figures to guide policy action at the local, regional, national and supra-national levels. The usefulness of these estimation models could be enhanced by the availability of homogeneous and stable information on socio-demographics and on the level of coverage and take-up of broadband networks, at least at NUTS3 level.
Purpose
This paper aims to study the results of the public aid programmes, through supply-side subsidies, for ultra-fast next generation access (NGA) broadband deployment that have been developed in The Canary Islands since 2013. These findings will, in turn, hopefully help the policymakers of archipelagos define their own ultra-fast broadband development plans.
Design/methodology/approach
An empirical approach has been used, based on the observation of the historical results obtained in the archipelago and the way broadband was diffused throughout the territory.
Findings
Results show that the broadband has developed asymmetrically in the archipelago, which, in turn, has caused the onset of a triple spatial digital divide. It was also observed that some aspects of the current way that such programmes are created and, consequently, the way that public funds are allocated, that could be improved and might help prevent geographical discrimination. Lastly, several insights have been presented for further investigation.
Originality/value
A large amount of scientific research has been carried out studying ultra-fast broadband NGA networks deployment. Less literature can be found on this topic when considering the specificities of fragmented territories like archipelagos. This paper tries to contribute with some empirical insights about such specific scenarios.
The chapter focuses on post-implementation evaluation and examination of policy, determining its effectiveness and efficiency and determining whether new policy or modifications to existing policy are necessary. This evaluation assesses the impact of policy and the tools used to implement it. It employs many of the methods used in pre-implementation policy analysis but measures actual performance of the policies against previously relied upon beliefs and projections. The chapter explores learned examination of policy, provides an overview of contemporary policy studies literature and discusses how different methods are employed to undertake such examinations.
Health information system is credited with the capabilities to collect,
process, report and use health information and knowledge to influence policy
and decision-making. The District Health Information Management System
(DHIMS II) is a comprehensive health information system for capturing,
reporting and analysing health data for the healthcare ecosystem in Ghana.
The system has been operational since 2012 and is available in all 216 health
districts in Ghana. This paper evaluates this health information management
system using an adaptation of Information Systems (IS) Success Model by
Delone and McLean. The study introduces three implementation variables,
namely, Management Support, Resource Availability, and User Involvement,
Education and Training to the IS success model to assess their influence
on the health information system’s success. Stratified sampling and simple
random sampling were used for the selection of the districts from which
quantitative data were collected using questionnaires. Purposive sampling
was then used to select the respondents. The results show the system
quality of District Health Information Management Systems (DHIMS II)
has improved information quality, service quality. These have significantly influenced the users’ intention to continue using the system. The study
also affirmed the significance of the impact that the management support,
resource availability, and user involvement, education and training has on
the systems use and continued usage. The study concludes that although the
implementation of the system has been successful, there are concerns over
data integrity hence the need to restrict the number of users with permission to edit
data in the system.
Handbook on ICT in Developing Countries: Next Generation Technologies is the second volume of the Handbook of ICT in developing countries. The first volume was on the potential implementation and service delivery of the forth-coming 5G networks. Here the focus is on the new technologies and services enabled by 5G networks or broadband Internet networks including artificial Intelligence (AI), machine learning, augmented reality, Internet of Things (IoT), autonomous driving, blockchain solutions, cloud solutions etc. Some of these are already globally experiencing growth in the existing networks and all of them are expected to grow substantially in the future.
Examples: currently, 5% of global organizations have fully adopted AI, but the penetration is expected to increase rapidly before 2025. IoT with 20.35 billion devices connected in 2017 is estimated to show 75.44 billion devices connected in 2025. The expected growth is based on delivering of new value to businesses and citizens.
It is, however, not obvious that this growth will also occur in developing countries. Currently, the digital divide between developing countries and developed countries is widening. This is mostly due to the lack of infrastructure and low level of awareness by the businesses and citizens of the value made possible by the new technologies for developing countries.
The book discusses the potentials of the new technologies for developing countries and the need for market interventions that will facilitate the demand and supply side of the market. It is designed for a broad audience including practitioners, researchers, academics, policy makers and industry players and influencers. The language and approach to the handbook is a combination of the academic writing style and professional reviews.
The electoral process in most developing countries are often problematic. The root of the problem often stems from the lack of trust emanating from an event in the election process. Over the years, electronic voting solutions have been adopted. Unfortunately, these solutions have not solved the trust related issues on the electoral process. Blockchain is proposed in this chapter as a solution to this problem. This is because Blockchain is a technology designed based on the trust by default principle. Persons who do not trust each other are able to facilitate transactions on Blockchain in a trusted manner. The proposition is backed by a proof of concept using the Ghanaian electoral process as a case. This chapter concludes that Blockchain is indeed the missing link in the facilitation of trust between the relevant stakeholders in a national, provincial or local election.
Advanced manufacturing (AM) is a vital driver of the U.S. economy. AM is also crucial in building U.S. competitiveness by strengthening the scientific and engineering enterprise and providing transformative science and technology solutions. AM anchors rural economies across the country and is especially important to rural America, where it accounts for a larger share of employment and earnings than in urban areas. Broadband Internet connectivity is essential affordance of the “smart” AM production technologies key to U.S. leadership because they enable manufacturers to precisely customize products and supply for increasingly segmented markets. However, our review of policy and research suggests that little is known about the extent to which the U.S. broadband environment can support and enable AM, especially in the prime rural locations. In this paper, we will explore rural communities’ AM readiness. Specifically, we synthesize research and policy documents relating to the centrality of broadband Internet to AM; the state of broadband in rural communities; and the potential for AM transform rural communities. We conclude with promising directions for information science researchers to further investigate the relationship between broadband and the potential for AM to benefit rural communities’ economic potential.
Utilization is a key aspect in the management of any societal resource not only when it is scarce but in all cases to allow for optimum benefits to be accrued to everyone in the society. Internet bandwidth, which is a rare commodity especially in rural areas is hardly available where needed at the same cost and quality due to various reasons. Tanzania as a case study is among countries that have invested much in international, national and metro backbone networks, but still, there are areas without or with inadequate internet access services implying a significant utilization problem. In this paper, we present as a case study, the status of broadband connectivity in selected rural areas in Tanzania (Arusha) and the status is used to make recommendations for optimized utilization of installed capacity.
The ambitious goals of the European “Digital Agenda” need active involvement by regional innovation systems. Effective regional “digital strategies” should be both consistent with the European framework and based on available evidence on the needs and opportunities of local contexts. Such evidence should be used to balance the different components of the Information Society development (e.g. eServices vs. infrastructures; ICT supply and demand), so as to ensure that they can all unleash their full potential. Therefore, EU regions should spend more money to overcome regional weaknesses than to improve existing assets. In this paper we explore the different strategies of the EU's lagging regions through the analysis of the allocation of 2007–13 Structural Funds. Then, we verify whether such strategies respond to territorial conditions by comparing strategic choices made with the actual characteristics of local contexts. Results show that EU regions tend to invest more resources in those aspects in which they already demonstrate good relative performances. Possible causes of this unbalanced strategic approach are discussed, including the lack of sound analysis of the regional context and the path dependence of policy choices.
As demand for mobile broadband services continues to explode, mobile wireless networks must expand greatly their capacities. This paper describes and quantifies the economic and technical challenges associated with “deepening” wireless networks to meet this exploding demand. Methods of capacity expansion divide into three general categories: the deployment of more radio spectrum; more intensive geographic reuse of spectrum; and increasing the throughput capacity of each MHz of spectrum within a given geographic area. The paper first provides a brief technical background on mobile wireless networks and these basic methods to deepen their capacity. It goes on to measure the contribution of each of these methods to historical capacity growth within U.S. networks. The paper then describes the capabilities of 4G LTE wireless technology, and further innovations off of it, to increase network capacity. The capacity expansion capability of LTE-Advanced along with traditional spectrum reuse are quantified, and are compared to forecasts of future demand to evaluate the ability of U.S. networks to match this future demand. We find that without significantly increased allocations of spectrum, wireless capacity expansion will be wholly inadequate to accommodate expected demand growth. This conclusion is in contrast to claims that the U.S. faces no spectrum shortage.
The concept of “universal service obligation” (USO) has been around for decades; however, its definition continues to change. The notion that the last mile of fixed-line access should be subsidized has spread around the world, despite well reasoned arguments and empirical evidence that the policy is and was a failure. It created artificial competition. Now the concept is becoming bifurcated. Should wireless and/or broadband services be included in the definition of universal services? The purpose of the paper is to demonstrate why the definition should be expanded, although a definitive prescription is not offered.This paper is in two parts: What should constitute USO definitions and how, if at all, it should be implemented? Many consumers are “cutting-the-cord” and moving directly to alternative services. In this ubiquitous communications environment the whole set of possible communications methods should be considered when defining “universal connectivity.” Second, no one service or technology should be relied on to support subsidies.The second part of the paper addresses the policy question: How should this connectivity be achieved?
We estimate the effects of adopting DSL broadband on firm productivity and productivity growth allowing for differing broadband speeds. We use a two-stage least squares estimator with geographical broadband availability as an instrument to address some potential endogeneity problems in a panel of Irish manufacturing firms. While more productive firms are on average more likely to be using DSL broadband, we find no statistically significant effect of broadband adoption on firms׳ productivity or productivity growth.
This paper evaluates whether it is feasible for an LTE operator to deliver a 30 Mbps fixed service in rural areas in Spain and if this is not the case, whether passive network sharing could make it feasible, since this is in fact one of the objectives set out in the Digital Agenda for Europe and a key issue in the national broadband strategy. The research is conducted through a techno-economic assessment in an infrastructure competition scenario. A discounted cash flow method is used to determine the total cost of the deployment for the operator and the minimum average revenue per user (ARPU) which would be required to recover the investment in both approaches: passive network sharing and non-sharing. On the other hand, the three demand scenarios that were considered, depending on the envisaged Spanish broadband penetration by 2020, attempt to calculate what take-up and ARPU are likely in the targeted rural areas. As mobile operators׳ coverage obligation stipulates covering 90% of the municipalities with less than 5000 inhabitants, extreme rural areas, which correspond to the final 0.7% of the population, are excluded from this assessment. The results indicate that, given the socio-economic characteristics of the assessed area, demand is very sensitive to price and that the existence of other broadband products forces the operator to lower the ARPU. As a result, only very high take-up ratios would make the deployment feasible. The research shows that passive network sharing does not constitute a solution; nevertheless, a single network deployment could solve the unfeasibility problem in rural areas.
The literature has already presented quite a number of composite metrics seeking to quantify the achievement level of countries with regard to their telecommunication infrastructures and their use by end customers. However, prior measures suffer from severe shortcomings. Therefore, this paper introduces a new second order overall index assessing the availability, adoption and usage intensity of telecommunication networks and services at the country level. The proposed Telecommunications Development Index (TDI) integrates 11 indicators, which are grouped into three first level subindices labeled Supply, Adoption and Usage. Indicator and subindex weights used in combining them into higher order measures are computed drawing on Partial Least Squares (PLS) Structural Equation Modeling (SEM) techniques. The modeling rests on the assumption that TDI weights should be outcome specific and thus constructed in a way that maximizes the indicators’ and subindices’ capability, respectively to pre dict socially desirable national performance criteria such as per capita gross domestic product (GDP) change or a country’s Human Development Index (HDI) value. Based on data from 111 countries, this approach was used to calculate weights of the indicators and subindices merged into a total TDI predicting either GDP per capita change or a country’s HDI. In both TDI variants the Adoption subindex variable fixed broadband subscriptions per household and the Supply subindex variable international bandwidth capacity available per Internet user achieved the highest relative weights of all indicators in the prediction of the two studied social outcome criteria. The PLS SEM results were used to calculate scores of the two TDI variations for each of the sample countries. TDI based rankings of the countries were compared with a ranking derived from the Information and Communication Technologies Development Index of the International Telecommunication Union.
The use of hybrid fibre- and copper-based access networks can complement the deployment of fibre to the home (FTTH) networks, especially in areas where the deployment of fibre in the final metres is difficult. G.fast is a copper-based access technology that can, in theory, provide a combined downstream and upstream transmission capacity of up to 1 Gbps over a distance of 100 m. In this article, we analyse the cost of fibre to the distribution point (FTTdp) with G.fast and assess the cost reductions that can be achieved in comparison with FTTH networks. Two types of FTTdp networks have been employed: fibre to the building (FTTdp-Building) and fibre to the street (FTTdp-Street). The results show that, for all the network scenarios studied, the cost of a home passed for FTTH and FTTdp-Building is the same, but the cost of a home passed for FTTdp-Street is on average 17.2% lower than the cost for FTTH. Regarding the cost per home connected, the usage of FTTdp-Building and FTTdp-Street leads to average cost reductions compared with FTTH of 1.1% and 10.8%, respectively. The cost reductions achieved when employing FTTdp are higher in urban areas than in suburban and rural areas. Several measures could be taken by policymakers to promote the deployment of FTTdp networks that work with G.fast: these include the coordination of frequency bands to avoid the interference of G.fast with very high speed digital subscriber line 2 (VDSL2) equipment and the speeding up of permissions for the installation of FTTdp equipment.
The common idea of open access policy is that it refers to the sharing of particular elements, such as wholesale access networks, backhaul, under-sea cable and internet exchange points in fixed and mobile networks. In broadband networks, the use of open access policy usually refers to the infrastructure parts, which are considered a bottleneck. Many regulators have generally focused open access policy on fixed broadband networks, especially digital subscriber line (DSL) technology, in the last decade. Local loop unbundling (LLU) regulation is one of the main strategies for the regulator to open access to an incumbent’s bottleneck network in order to soften its monopoly power and encourage competition in the DSL broadband market. The OECD countries have different strategies regarding unbundling local loop and infrastructure competition, as the characteristics and infrastructure networks of countries vary. There are currently more choices of next generation network (NGN) technologies to develop. While local loop unbundling may not be applied fully to NGN development (the cost is not sunk, more technologies are available to implement, incentive of investment by operator), it can indicate benefits and drawbacks of open access policy in the past decade that can be adapted to NGN.
The ladder of investment was adopted by many European (and other) regulators in the era of copper networks as a means of implementing unbundling in a way which progressively promotes competitive providers׳ infrastructure investment in fixed networks. The paper reviews the evidence of its application and effects, in comparison with the most likely alternative, argues that it probably conferred benefits. In the more recent era of transition to fibre in Europe, regulatory priorities have shifted towards promoting roll-out. Two broad approaches are identified; one continues the focus on a programme of infrastructure competition in taking fibre to the home; another, relying on fibre to the cabinet, reverses it with bitstream used as the access product. It is soon to evaluate the two approaches.
Due to the high costs associated with the deployment of the passive infrastructure of FTTH networks, a few alternative operators have pondered the possibility of making co-investments based on a network sharing model. The purpose of this article is to explore economic aspects of a co-investment scheme for present and future FTTH/PON architectures. The article describes the cost reductions that can be achieved when a co-investment scheme is used, as well as the relationship between market shares and the cost per home connected. A cost model was employed to calculate the investment per home passed and the investment per home connected. The investment per home passed for an alternative operator indicates significant cost reductions when a co-investment scheme is used. On the other hand, the results show that when the incumbent's market share is equal or higher than the total market share of all the alternative operators that share the network infrastructure, the investment per home connected for an alternative operator is higher than that for the incumbent operator. Moreover, to be cost competitive with the incumbent operator, the necessary market share that each alternative operator should achieve is much lower than that of the incumbent operator.
A number of regional initiatives have recently revived the Italian broadband sector, although their fortunes vary depending on governance, market and geographical issues. However, all these initiatives jointly succeeded in sparking a heated debate on how public–private interplay can facilitate the deployment of broadband networks in a country still lagging behind European frontrunners such as Denmark, Sweden and the Netherlands. In the light of European Union regulation and recent case law, the paper examines three regional initiatives (Progetto Banda Ultra Larga Lombardia, Trentino Network and Lepida Emilia Romagna) by using the conceptual model on public private interplay developed by Nucciarelli, Sadowski, and Achard (2010). Thereafter, the paper elaborates on initiatives' ups and downs to focus on conditions and trigger events that have made them a success or a failure story. Lessons learnt conclude.
In this paper we use panel data on NUTS 1 regional data for 27 EU countries in the years 2006–2010 to analyze determinants of broadband diffusion. We estimate both linear demand specification and the logistic diffusion function. We find that, after controlling for regional differences due to socioeconomic factors, inter-platform competition approximated by an inter-platform Herfindahl index has a significant positive impact on broadband diffusion. Broadband deployment is lower in countries in which DSL has a greater share in Internet access and it is higher in countries in which cable modem has a greater share in Internet access. Moreover, we find that competition between DSL providers has a significant and positive impact on broadband penetration. First, higher prices for a fully unbundled local loop connection, which represent the cost of providing copper-based Internet services, have a significant and negative impact on broadband penetration. Second, a greater incumbent share in DSL connections has a significant and negative impact on broadband penetration.
One of the most controversial regulatory issues in Europe (and elsewhere) is whether the emerging next-generation access (NGA) infrastructure should be subjected to cost-based access regulation or whether at least a temporary removal of ex ante obligations (“regulatory holidays”) should be granted. Likewise, the role of NGA-specific state aid policies is increasingly capturing the attention of policy makers and the academic literature.
In answering the questions raised above, we examine the previous and foreseeable EU regulatory framework and show that currently it does not provide sufficient incentives for NGA deployment and hence for increased penetration of NGA services. On the basis of an international comparison and by means of a diffusion analysis with recent NGA data, we argue that deregulatory and/or state-aid-driven approaches targeted at the demand (subscribers) and supply side (coverage) are more promising.
In recent years governments in many countries have acknowledged the higher complexity involved in finding the more efficient path towards a so-called broadband ecosystem. As the first decade of the twenty first century was ending, the governments of Australia and New Zealand committed to the construction of high-speed, fibre-optics next-generation access networks. This paper is about the approach followed by Australia and New Zealand to developing broadband infrastructure, the means deployed to build the network, and policy and market issues. The paper critically analyses the short history of each experience, including the political process, the reasons exhibited to justify the governments' involvement in infrastructure deployment, and the institutional arrangements introduced to manage the participation of private partners. The paper proposes a framework for analysis and uses its elements to critically analyse policy and regulatory decisions affecting the deployment rate and goals set by Australian and New Zealand government for their respective fibre-based next-generation platforms. The framework is used to draw comparisons between the two country cases and in so doing allowing the appreciation of commonalities and differences in the development and expectations for the future of telecommunications markets in the region.
The Telecommunications Act of 1996 (1996 Act) established the framework for four federal universal service programs: the High-Cost program, the Low-Income program, the Schools and Libraries (E-rate) program, and the Rural Health Care program. During the past 15 years, these programs have been examined from a number of perspectives in an attempt to measure their efficiency and effectiveness, including the funding mechanisms that support them. The Federal Communications Commission is in the process of restructuring the universal service programs to move support to broadband-based technologies. This is an opportune time to examine what is known about whether these programs have met the universal service objectives of the 1996 Act and have efficiently and effectively used universal service funding. To that end, this article surveys both oversight reports by federal government agencies and academic research literature drawn from a variety of sources to identify areas of concern regarding the mission, implementation, and impact of the federal universal service programs and support mechanisms. The article also includes research findings on how the economic incentives created by the federal universal service programs affect corporate investment and deployment decisions and consumer service and technology adoption decisions.
This paper aims to empirically investigate the impact of a vast array of public policies on wireline broadband penetration through a novel and unique dataset covering 30 OECD countries, over the period 1995–2010. Estimation results show that, while both supply- and demand-side policies have a positive effect on broadband penetration, their relative impact depends on the actual stage of broadband diffusion. When an advanced stage is reached, only demand-side policies appear to generate a positive and increasing effect. The analysis also finds that broadband adoption rates increase with the share of the service sector in the economy, with the number of mobile subscriptions and with the degree of market competition. This study thus allows to attain a more refined understanding of past experiences of broadband stimulation that may provide new insights for a selective policy design to promote both the development of traditional broadband and the rollout of next generation networks.
Broadband is becoming increasingly important to national economies and the personal lives of users. However, broadband availability and adopation 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.
Broadband adoption and its applications have been found to affect economic growth, innovativeness, political representation and individual welfare. As such, network infrastructures are now central in the political agenda with modern economies largely dependent on the vast spillover effects of information services. The European Commission has set out its targets to improve the Union’s infrastructure by 2020 and provide high quality services to all citizens. This effort entails a front-loaded high-risk investment – both in terms of technology uncertainty and the rate of adoption – making it unlikely to materialize without significant subsidies. In this paper we attempt to estimate the net benefits of the implementation of the Broadband Digital Agenda. Using a structural model we first estimate the broadband infrastructure returns for the period 2005-2011, differentiating the impact of broadband by levels of adoption and speed while taking into account the effects of reverse causality and extensive heterogeneity. We further extrapolate the individualized returns by country using different scenarios of implementation. In doing so, we utilize the most detailed sample on the total infrastructure cost requirements depending on demography, technology choice and network reuse. Effectively we monetize the conceptual policy goals, acknowledging the degrees of uncertainty within this attempt. We finally estimate the required investment and subsidies by country and the cumulative and net gains by different implementation approach.
How next-generation access (NGA) deployment can be encouraged is a challenge that many countries are facing, and one that has been widely and actively discussed around the globe. This discussion has highlighted a dilemma that ultimately shapes investment—how to encourage the widespread deployment of NGA while enabling operators to achieve reasonable returns. This paper focuses on the tensions that arise as a consequence of this investment challenge in three countries – the Netherlands, Sweden and the United Kingdom (UK) – and uses the analysis of extensive data collection with k7ey actors to argue the case for the injection of public or private incentives. The paper finds that markets with competitive infrastructure will not benefit from public investment while markets with geographical constraints are in need of public support. The paper also explains that regulatory intervention is necessary in the early stage of NGA roll-out, even in currently competitive markets. In all the discussions it becomes evident that, among the three cases, the UK is most in need of public intervention.
Over the last years, technical and economic developments towards the deployment of Next Generation (Access) Networks have triggered discussions under which circumstances investments into physical infrastructure are economically viable. In many countries the discussion has arisen regarding conditions under which private investment will/will not be undertaken and whether or not in such cases public policy measures should support deployment. This could come in different ways—from incentivizing private investments to deploying new “state-owned” networks. Public policy can have an impact for example by intervening into a competitive market. The paper tries to provide answers as to “why” such interventions and supply side policies are undertaken (thereby referring to the central role that broadband infrastructures have for the economy) and “how” such interventions take place, for example an analysis of the public policy interventions to drive Next Generation Access Network deployment. The article thereby derives policy patterns that have occurred in different regions of the world.
Fiber to the home networks are seen as the most future proof technology to offer increasing bandwidth to customers. The publication of the Digital Agenda has put forward challenging goals for the broadband connectivity in Europe, but the rollout of next generation fixed access networks is still lagging. One of the reasons is the high initial investment cost associated with the rollout of these networks. To decrease this cost, a cooperation model between utility operators during the deployment phase is proposed in this paper. A model has been developed, in order to optimize the position of the different infrastructures in the trench and to allow for a fair allocation of the different costs incurred between all cooperating parties. The combination of these models has shown that a synergetic deployment phase of new infrastructures, both in Greenfield and Brownfield installations, can decrease the deployment costs for fiber infrastructure up to 21%.
This paper analyzes substitution between access to fixed-line and mobile telephony in the European Union. We derive a structural model of household's demand for: (i) fixed-line only, (ii) mobile only, (iii) and both fixed-line and mobile access. We estimate demand for mobiles conditional on having fixed-line access and demand for fixed-line conditional on having mobile access. These regressions suggest that mobile and fixed-line access are perceived as substitutes in the Western European countries and as complements in Central and Eastern European countries. We also estimate unconditional household's demand for fixed-line only and mobiles only access, which confirm that mobile and fixed-line access are substitutes. In addition, we find that use of cable broadband decreases fixed-line connections. A decline in fixed-line is on the way in Central and Eastern European countries both due to substitution with mobiles and growing use of alternative to fixed-line means of internet access. Once, households start using cable broadband to access Internet and mobiles to make calls, fixed-line becomes obsolete. The complementarity between mobile and fixed-line access in Western European countries postpones a decline in fixed-line connections but this can change in the nearest future with increasing competition for the provision internet access from both mobiles and cable.
This article addresses the impact of regulatory policy on levels of infrastructure deploy-ment and derived welfare in the telecommunications sector. The model considers two potentially coexisting and partially competing techniques (the "old" ADSL -Asymmet-ric Digital Subscriber Line -technique) -and the "new" FTTH -Fibre To The Home -one). Competition is supposed to be high on the ADSL market because of already existing regulation. We assume that two types of operators are competing in order to provide FTTH services: those that build and operate the new infrastructures (OP f 1) and those that just buy access to them (OP f 2). In our model, the level of investment is decided at stage 1 and the access price is decided at stage 2. At stage 3, OP f 1 and OP f 2 compete à la Cournot. This common framework allows us to show that the "regulation defining access price in order to maximise infrastructure deployment" is strictly equivalent to the case in which "no regulation applies". We also derive from the model that these two types of regulation induce higher social welfare, but lower numbers of FTTH consumers than "cost-oriented access regulation". Finally, we show that the level of infrastructure deployment (as well as social welfare and number of FTTH consumers) will be at its highest if both investment and access price decisions are taken by the regulator. This suggests that the social optimum will be achieved through a call-for-tender process including deployment and access prices requirements.
Significant resources are being allocated to accelerate high speed broadband deployment and adoption in unserved and underserved areas. However, there are increasing gaps between as well as within the states in terms of broadband availability, adoption, use and speed. A number of studies suggest that the paucity of broadband diffusion is only partially due to a lack of availability of broadband. Yet, broadband availability is often the only factor that is used to assess broadband needs for policy interventions. This paper proposes a composite Broadband Achievement Index (BAI) to measure each state’s current broadband achievement relative to other states providing an important benchmark for assessing state-specific needs and designing policies targeting those needs. The index combines several key performance sub-indices including broadband availability, adoption, affordability, speed and the dispersion of the broadband coverage within the states providing a more comprehensive picture of where the states stand in their evolution towards high-performance America. The sub-indices are constructed based on Data Envelopment Analysis (DEA). Exploiting data relationships, this methodology combines indicators that are common across states while explicitly taking the diversity of the states into account, which may be due to state specific factors such as existing communications infrastructures (cable or telephone), geography and state specific policies. Additionally, the paper uses second order stochastic dominance (SOSD) to compare the digital divide among the states based on county level adoption rates. Two states may have the same average adoption rates, but the connections may be concentrated in one metropolitan area for one state, while more equally distributed across counties in the other. With SOSD, the states with more equal spread of broadband diffusion among counties rank higher. The results help to detangle the sources for low broadband diffusion in states and offer policy implications.
Investments in Next Generation Access Networks (NGANs) ask for a new set of regulatory remedies. This paper contributes to this debate by focusing on three issues: the migration from the legacy copper network to the NGA infrastructure, and how wholesale pricing regulation might affect this process; the introduction of differentiated wholesale remedies according to geographical differences in NGAN deployment; the impact of co-investment decisions on market outcomes and their interplay with access regulation. Using the recent economic literature, arguments and possible guidelines are proposed, which might be useful to regulators and policy makers.
Europe is lagging behind other developed economies in the availability and use of very fast broadband services. The recently introduced Digital Agenda for Europe initiative sets forward ambitious targets for the development of super-fast broadband infrastructures in Europe to foster smart and sustainable growth. This paper presents estimates of the costs of meeting these targets through the deployment of next-generation networks. Furthermore, the magnitude of the financing gap is estimated and public support mechanisms are discussed to complement market investment in areas with low financial viability for the investment. The rationale of public sector support is discussed in light of the expected economic benefits of NGNs to consumers and businesses.
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.
With the 2008 Federal Communications Commission (FCC) order amending both the definition of broadband and its data collection practices, the problems associated with data integrity and ZIP code aggregations in the United States will soon be forgotten. However, between 1999 and 2007, FCC Form 477 data remain the only viable, nationwide database of broadband provision in the United States. While broadband data from 1999-2004 and 2005-2007 are not directly comparable due to a modification in collection procedure, there is an absence of objective empirical analysis for the latter time period. Interestingly, although the FCC made the 2005-2007 data publically available on the Internet, password protected files largely prevented analysts from accessing, manipulating and analyzing these data. The purpose of this paper is three-fold. First, the process utilized for liberating these data from their protected format and integrating them into a geographic information system (GIS) is outlined. Second, the spatial distribution of broadband provision in the United States for 2005-2007 is explored. A mathematical programming approach is also utilized for comparing the relative efficiencies of ZIP code areas in acquiring broadband service given their demand-side socio-economic and demographic determinants. Finally, implications for public policy, particularly those associated with developing local and regional benchmarks for broadband provision, competition and access, are addressed.
The existing US public safety wireless infrastructure consists of thousands of disparate systems built by separate local agencies. Problems with interoperability, cost, spectral efficiency, and limited functionality plague these systems but could be significantly reduced through the deployment of a single nationwide network that serves all public safety personnel. Two major efforts towards such a nationwide network are the federal-government-only Integrated Wireless Network (IWN) and an FCC-led effort to create a public-private partnership in the 700 MHz band; the future of both projects is uncertain due in part to concerns surrounding cost. This paper presents a model to estimate cost for two fundamental approaches to a nationwide network: a public-safety-only network and a public–private partnership which serves both public safety and commercial subscribers. We apply this general model to four network scenarios which differ in the amount and band of spectrum allocated as well as the number and type of subscribers (public-safety-only versus commercial and public safety) under three traffic scenarios: voice-only, data-only, and voice and data. We demonstrate that the nation's many small systems could be replaced with a single nationwide network with a small fraction of the tower sites and spectrum. The cost of building this new infrastructure is comparable to what is likely to be spent in just a few years on upgrading and maintaining the existing infrastructure. In addition, we show that these cost estimates are highly dependent on some key system design parameters including the public safety capacity required and signal coverage reliability, which must therefore be well-defined in advance.
This paper reexamines the effect of the regulatory regime on both penetration and coverage of broadband access to the internet. The framework also allows for an evaluation of different public policy measures such as subsidization of broadband demand and supply. A welfare analysis asks what the optimal regulatory regime is and whether and how high-speed access to the internet should be subsidized. Using an approach similar to Valletti et al. (2002), the paper highlights the importance of population density for whether firms invest to provide internet access. The analysis reveals a trade-off between coverage and penetration