“…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]. Such municipalities have planned either short-term or long-term actions, such as training for all ages so that they can make use of all of the available tools provided by local councils.…”
Section: Discussionmentioning
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%
“…When asked if there are success stories in their municipalities thanks to the use of the internet, almost 50% of the municipalities claim not to have any (Figure 7). This seems to indicate, on the one hand, the lack of dedication by local councils to develop new local actions or motivate inhabitants to develop them [18], or, on the other hand, the inability to carry this out due to the lack of infrastructure. Otherwise, the other part of municipalities stated that teleworking, e-commerce and tourism were the most favored cases, thanks to digital technologies.…”
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.
“…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]. Such municipalities have planned either short-term or long-term actions, such as training for all ages so that they can make use of all of the available tools provided by local councils.…”
Section: Discussionmentioning
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%
“…When asked if there are success stories in their municipalities thanks to the use of the internet, almost 50% of the municipalities claim not to have any (Figure 7). This seems to indicate, on the one hand, the lack of dedication by local councils to develop new local actions or motivate inhabitants to develop them [18], or, on the other hand, the inability to carry this out due to the lack of infrastructure. Otherwise, the other part of municipalities stated that teleworking, e-commerce and tourism were the most favored cases, thanks to digital technologies.…”
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.
“…The three smallest counties (Liberty, Franklin, and Lafayette) were mostly limited to only two providers. The limited availability matches the typical pattern of rural areas, where there is a lower population density per square mile and therefore not as profitable for broadband providers ( Feld, 2020 ). Fig.…”
Section: Methods and Resultsmentioning
confidence: 54%
“…This is of major concern since as the push to develop 5G networks and deploy fiber optics in urban settings increases, rural residents may be stuck in a “dial-up age” ( Ali, 2020 ). Additionally, rural areas with broadband support tend to pay higher prices although their speeds are lower and less reliable than in urban areas since their broadband is often controlled by an unregulated monopoly provider ( Feld, 2020 ).…”
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