Success Model rural Fiber: Implications for Infrastructudre Enforcement Policies

Abstract:
Broadband, in particular the national level of broadband penetration is a significant driver for economic growth. Whilst the availability of broadband in terms of band-width and variety of competitive communication providers is highly sufficient in population dense areas, rural areas suffer massively from a major scarcity of broad-band connections. This is not only the case for some specific areas; it is moreover a well known general phenomenon in industrialized countries. Recently, public pressure for an accelerated comprehensive roll-out of high performance broadband has become more intense. Resulting governmental activities to foster broadband penetration and usage especially in less populated and rural areas are easily comprehensible. But the question is now if and how public intervention is required for the provisioning of broadband access infrastructure. The feasibility of rural FTTH networks is hence at the core of the study at hand. 37 FTTH projects in rural areas were analyzed in this study according to a framework developed. In the end, the results suggest public private partnerships as relationship of public and private financing in funding (local) fiber infrastructure investment projects.