Integration of Remote and Social Sensing Data Reveals Uneven Quality of Broadband Connectivity Across World Cities

Abstract

Urbanisation and digitalisation are two of the megatrends characterising contemporary human society. Digital broadband access is an essential enabler, and despite its large growth potential, it can differ across territories. Taking a comparative approach from a global perspective, this chapter studies the relationship between urbanisation and digitalisation by looking at the quality of broadband access in urban centres using geospatial data processing. It is based on a combination of open and free data sourced from earth observation (Copernicus and Landsat programmes) to map and classify human settlements, with social sensing data to assess broadband quality with open data released by Ookla® at the grid level. We analyse the database in a stratified way to identify whether urban centres in high-income countries are better in terms of broadband connectivity compared to those in developing economies; whether urban centre population size is an advantage in the regions of the world where connectivity is low; and whether urban centres that have experienced stronger population growth in recent years display an advantage in terms of digitalisation. This work sheds light on the nature and type of deprivation related to uneven access to infrastructure, especially digital ones. The results indicate significant geographical and income disparities in terms of internet download speeds across the world. The performance of mobile and fixed broadband connectivity is different, and mobile connectivity offers a higher performance alternative to fixed networks in less affluent countries.