Making Rural Broadband Affordable : Synchronizing Installation with Other Public Works

Foch, Arthur

World Bank, Washington, DC

关键词: broadband;    internet;    telecommunications;   

RP-ID  :  107706

学科分类：社会科学、人文和艺术（综合）

来源: World Bank Open Knowledge Repository

【 摘 要 】

The high cost of extending Internetservice beyond urban areas and the relatively low number ofpotential subscribers has combined to stall the expansion ofthis enabling technology in much of the developing world(and even in some advanced economies). Installing cablesover land by exploiting existing infrastructure to carry theline eliminates most of the construction costs of domesticInternet networks—but that colocation option is much lessavailable for remote or thinly populated areas. A wayforward is to synchronize the installation with work onother suitable infrastructure projects (transport, energy,water, gas). The developmental value of high-speed Internetand the strategy of colocating cable with transport andpower corridors are well understood. The missing piece is alegal and regulatory push to ensure that cable isaccommodated when private or public infrastructure is builtor renovated in rural areas. With technical assistanceinformed by precedents in advanced economies, theinternational community and developing countries themselvescan accelerate adoption of such policies.