Local government broadband policies for areas with limited Internet access

Arai, Yasuhiko; Naganuma, Sae; Satake, Yasukazu

doi:10.4000/netcom.1091

Cited by 8 publications

(9 citation statements)

References 19 publications

Supporting

Mentioning

Contrasting

Order By: Relevance

“…We originally assumed that local governments are expected to play more significant roles in the deployment of internet infrastructures in rural areas [21,34]; however, the results show that this usually occurs when the municipalities have higher populations. Even so, the role of local government should be to examine the locality and potential operators, in order to assess what elements are missing, how this could it be solved, and what assets could be used to reduce the costs [18].…”

Section: Discussionmentioning

confidence: 99%

“…It attempts to assess these working Hypothesis: Hypothesis 1. Local governments are expected to play more significant roles in the deployment of internet infrastructures in rural areas than in urbanized areas of the countries, especially in larger municipalities [21,34]. Hypothesis 2.…”

Section: Methodsmentioning

confidence: 99%

“…Rural areas have always struggled to match the broadband opportunities of urban ones, but the lack of policies, public funding and business confidence have not allowed to overcome this failure. The geographical gaps in broadband access form a worldwide challenge that has attracted scholars' attention in America [18,19], Australia [20], and Asian countries such as China [2] and Japan [21], as well as most European countries [15]. In 2016, Canada declared broadband a 'basic service', requiring companies to extend their service to remote communities [22].…”

Section: The Importance Of Digitalisation For the Prevention Of Depopmentioning

confidence: 99%

“…Local governments are expected to play more significant roles in the deployment of broadband infrastructures in rural areas. Particularly in less favoured areas, where telecom businesses are quite unprofitable, the active involvement of local governments is indispensable [21,34].…”

Section: The Importance Of Digitalisation For the Prevention Of Depopmentioning

confidence: 99%

See 3 more Smart Citations

Internet Access in Rural Areas: Brake or Stimulus as Post-Covid-19 Opportunity?

Ruiz-Martinez

Pérez

2020

Sustainability

View full text Add to dashboard Cite

The lack of internet access in most rural areas has become a challenge worldwide. The Covid-19 pandemic has highlighted trends such as teleworking and e-commerce, meaning an opportunity for the local economy of these areas, but with serious difficulties in carrying it out. This paper aims to detect this lack of internet in inland areas of the region of Valencia through local actors, in order to identify clear priorities and real needs through an explorative and replicable approach based on agglomerative hierarchical clustering (AHC). The main findings suggest that there are different patterns in the rural internet access related to adequate infrastructure and planned actions by local councils. In this way, a multitude of contextual elements have emerged that influence the importance of efficient access to the internet in rural areas. It is essential to know the real needs and demands of the population before implementing plans and programs that may not be relevant for the actors involved in territorial development.

show abstract

Section: Discussionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Section: Methodsmentioning

confidence: 99%

Section: The Importance Of Digitalisation For the Prevention Of Depopmentioning

confidence: 99%

Section: The Importance Of Digitalisation For the Prevention Of Depopmentioning

confidence: 99%

See 2 more Smart Citations

Internet Access in Rural Areas: Brake or Stimulus as Post-Covid-19 Opportunity?

Ruiz-Martinez

Pérez

2020

Sustainability

View full text Add to dashboard Cite

show abstract

“…A combination of poor telecommunications infrastructure coverage, low population density, inadequate regulation, and a focus by telecommunications companies on high-cost technologies designed for urban markets makes internet connectivity in many rural areas a complex and costly proposition (Arai, Naganuma & Satake 2012;Grubesic 2012;Hill, Troshani & Burgan 2014;Kawade & Nekovee 2012). Due to inadequate information and communication infrastructure and facilities in rural and remote areas, the digital divide between rural communities and urban communities is not improving and could be widening (Park et al 2015;Willis & Tranter 2006).…”

Section: Availability Of Broadband In Rural Australiamentioning

confidence: 99%

The Supply and Use of Broadband in Rural Australia: An Explanatory Case Study of the Western Downs Region

Lane

Tiwari

Alam

2016

AJIS

View full text Add to dashboard Cite

This research seeks to provide an understanding of broadband infrastructure supply and its relationship with household broadband use and satisfaction in rural Australia through an explanatory case study of the Western Downs Region (WDR). The Broadband Ecosystem provided a comprehensive framework for examining broadband infrastructure supply and household use and satisfaction with broadband services. Publicly available data was used to map the coverage of broadband access technologies in WDR. A large scale survey assessed household use and satisfaction with broadband services available in WDR. Our findings indicate that rural regions such as WDR are highly reliant on wireless broadband which is more variable in reliability and less affordable comparative to wired broadband. Our findings also indicate that household dissatisfaction with wireless broadband services is particularly evident in remote and outer regional areas. This suggests that the lack of reliable and affordable wireless broadband services with adequate data quotas are a real barrier to rural communities such as the WDR actively participating in a digital future. This study provided a number of important contributions. The broadband ecosystem provided a comprehensive framework for understanding the complex problem of broadband access in rural Australia by analysing two units of analysis, broadband infrastructure (supply) and broadband use and satisfaction (demand). Broadband infrastructure is an important and under-researched area in information systems. Future government policy needs to ensure that access to reliable and high speed broadband services is part of its universal service obligation so that the current shortcomings in broadband infrastructure in rural Australia will be prioritised and addressed. We believe this will require a commitment from future Governments to facilitate both public and private investment in broadband infrastructure in rural Australia.

show abstract