IDEAS home Printed from https://ideas.repec.org/p/zbw/itse19/205200.html
   My bibliography  Save this paper

Analysis of the WiFi4EU initiative as a potential instrument to correct digital divide in rural areas in the EU

Author

Listed:
  • Navío-Marco, Julio
  • Pérez-Leal, Raquel
  • Ruiz-Gómez, Luis Manuel

Abstract

With the WiFi4EU initiative, the European Commission intends to reinforce local wireless Internet connectivity free of charge and without discriminatory conditions in the EU. This paper aims to analyse if this policy measure achieves its goals: to contribute towards digital inclusion and to improve coverage in disadvantaged areas. By analysing the results of the first call, we can conclude that WiFi4EU can be a good tool for promoting the necessary connectivity in local/rural environments of the European Union, but there is room for improvement to increase the positive impact of the initiative. The article proposes useful recommendations for municipalities and policymakers, and suggests improvements for the award procedure.

Suggested Citation

  • Navío-Marco, Julio & Pérez-Leal, Raquel & Ruiz-Gómez, Luis Manuel, 2019. "Analysis of the WiFi4EU initiative as a potential instrument to correct digital divide in rural areas in the EU," 30th European Regional ITS Conference, Helsinki 2019 205200, International Telecommunications Society (ITS).
    • Handle: RePEc:zbw:itse19:205200
    as

    Download full text from publisher

    File URL: https://www.econstor.eu/bitstream/10419/205200/1/Navio-Marco-et-al.pdf
    Download Restriction: no
    ---><---

    References listed on IDEAS

    as
    1. Prieger, James E., 2013. "The broadband digital divide and the economic benefits of mobile broadband for rural areas," Telecommunications Policy, Elsevier, vol. 37(6), pages 483-502.
    2. Leanne Townsend & Arjuna Sathiaseelan & Gorry Fairhurst & Claire Wallace, 2013. "Enhanced broadband access as a solution to the social and economic problems of the rural digital divide," Local Economy, London South Bank University, vol. 28(6), pages 580-595, September.
    3. Troulos, Costas & Maglaris, Vasilis, 2011. "Factors determining municipal broadband strategies across Europe," Telecommunications Policy, Elsevier, vol. 35(9), pages 842-856.
    4. Briglauer, Wolfgang & Dürr, Niklas S. & Falck, Oliver & Hüschelrath, Kai, 2019. "Does state aid for broadband deployment in rural areas close the digital and economic divide?," Information Economics and Policy, Elsevier, vol. 46(C), pages 68-85.
    5. Galperin, Hernán & Mariscal Avilés, Judith & Viecens, María Fernanda, 2013. "National broadband plans," Libros de la CEPAL, Naciones Unidas Comisión Económica para América Latina y el Caribe (CEPAL), number 37065.
    6. Nucciarelli, Alberto & Sadowski, Bert M. & Achard, Paola O., 2010. "Emerging models of public-private interplay for European broadband access: Evidence from the Netherlands and Italy," Telecommunications Policy, Elsevier, vol. 34(9), pages 513-527, October.
    7. Brian E. Whitacre & Bradford F. Mills, 2007. "Infrastructure and the Rural—urban Divide in High-speed Residential Internet Access," International Regional Science Review, , vol. 30(3), pages 249-273, July.
    8. Falch, Morten & Henten, Anders, 2018. "Dimensions of broadband policies and developments," Telecommunications Policy, Elsevier, vol. 42(9), pages 715-725.
    9. Picot, Arnold & Wernick, Christian, 0. "The role of government in broadband access," Telecommunications Policy, Elsevier, vol. 31(10-11), pages 660-674, November.
    10. Galperin, Hernán & Mariscal Avilés, Judith & Viecens, María Fernanda, 2013. "National broadband plans," Sede de la CEPAL en Santiago (Estudios e Investigaciones) 39729, Naciones Unidas Comisión Económica para América Latina y el Caribe (CEPAL).
    11. Dickes, Lori A. & Lamie, R. David & Whitacre, Brian E., 2010. "The Struggle For Broadband In Rural America," Choices: The Magazine of Food, Farm, and Resource Issues, Agricultural and Applied Economics Association, vol. 25(4), pages 1-8.
    12. Briglauer, Wolfgang & Dürr, Niklas S. & Falck, Oliver & Hüschelrath, Kai, 2019. "Does state aid for broadband deployment in rural areas close the digital and economic divide?," Information Economics and Policy, Elsevier, vol. 46(C), pages 68-85.
    Full references (including those not matched with items on IDEAS)

    Most related items

    These are the items that most often cite the same works as this one and are cited by the same works as this one.
    1. Navío-Marco, Julio & Arévalo-Aguirre, Adrian & Pérez-Leal, Raquel, 2019. "WiFi4EU: Techno-economic analysis of a key European Commission initiative for public connectivity," Telecommunications Policy, Elsevier, vol. 43(6), pages 520-530.
    2. Navío-Marco, Julio & Arévalo-Aguirre, Adrian & Pérez-Leal, Raquel, 2018. "WiFi4EU: Techno-economic analysis of a key European Commission initiative for public connectivity," 29th European Regional ITS Conference, Trento 2018 184973, International Telecommunications Society (ITS).
    3. Liu, Chun, 2017. "An evaluation of China's evolving broadband policy: An ecosystem’s perspective," Telecommunications Policy, Elsevier, vol. 41(1), pages 1-11.
    4. Martin Quinn & Miguel Godinho de Matos & Christian Peukert, 2022. "The Welfare Effects of Mobile Internet Access - Evidence from Roam-Like-at-Home," CESifo Working Paper Series 9612, CESifo.
    5. Thonipara, Anita & Sternberg, Rolf G. & Proeger, Till & Haefner, Lukas, 2020. "Assessing the Digital Divide and its Regional Determinants: Evidence from a Web-Scraping Analysis," ifh Working Papers 25/2020, Volkswirtschaftliches Institut für Mittelstand und Handwerk an der Universität Göttingen (ifh), revised 2020.
    6. Matteucci, Nicola, 2021. "Procuring NGA infrastructure: The performance of EMAT auctions in Italy," Telecommunications Policy, Elsevier, vol. 45(1).
    7. Falch, Morten & Henten, Anders, 2018. "Dimensions of broadband policies and developments," Telecommunications Policy, Elsevier, vol. 42(9), pages 715-725.
    8. Ovando, Catalina & Olivera, Emmanuel, 2018. "Was household internet adoption driven by the reform? Evaluation of the 2013 telecommunication reform in Mexico," Telecommunications Policy, Elsevier, vol. 42(9), pages 700-714.
    9. Gerli, Paolo & Wainwright, David & Whalley, Jason, 2017. "Infrastructure investment on the margins of the market: The role of niche infrastructure providers in the UK," Telecommunications Policy, Elsevier, vol. 41(9), pages 743-756.
    10. Briglauer, Wolfgang & Dürr, Niklas S. & Gugler, Klaus, 2019. "A retrospective study on the regional benefits and spillover effects of high-speed broadband networks: Evidence from German counties," ZEW Discussion Papers 19-026, ZEW - Leibniz Centre for European Economic Research.
    11. Marc Bourreau & Lukasz Grzybowski & Ángela Muñoz-Acevedo, 2023. "The Efficiency of State Aid for the Deployment of High-Speed Broadband: Evidence from the French Markets," CESifo Working Paper Series 10440, CESifo.
    12. Wolfgang Briglauer & Michał Grajek, 2021. "Effectiveness and efficiency of state aid for new broadband networks: Evidence from OECD member states," ESMT Research Working Papers ESMT-21-01, ESMT European School of Management and Technology.
    13. Lee, Hyeongjik & Jeong, Seonkoo & Lee, Kwanghee, 2023. "The South Korean case of deploying rural broadband via fiber networks by implementing universal service obligation and public-private partnership based project," Telecommunications Policy, Elsevier, vol. 47(3).
    14. Stockinger, Bastian, 2017. "The effect of broadband internet on establishments' employment growth: evidence from Germany," IAB-Discussion Paper 201719, Institut für Arbeitsmarkt- und Berufsforschung (IAB), Nürnberg [Institute for Employment Research, Nuremberg, Germany].
    15. Hasbi, Maude & Bohlin, Erik, 2021. "Impact of Broadband Quality on Median Income and Unemployment: Evidence from Sweden," 23rd ITS Biennial Conference, Online Conference / Gothenburg 2021. Digital societies and industrial transformations: Policies, markets, and technologies in a post-Covid world 238026, International Telecommunications Society (ITS).
    16. Lei-Ju Qiu & Shun-Bin Zhong & Bao-Wen Sun & Yu Song & Xiao-Hua Chen, 2021. "Is internet penetration narrowing the rural–urban income inequality? A cross-regional study of China," Quality & Quantity: International Journal of Methodology, Springer, vol. 55(5), pages 1795-1814, October.
    17. Lindlacher, Valentin, 2021. "Low demand despite broad supply: Is high-speed Internet an infrastructure of general interest?," Information Economics and Policy, Elsevier, vol. 56(C).
    18. Sadowski, Bert & Howell, Bronwyn, 2012. "Will they fly?: Different Forms of Public-Private Partnerships (PPPs) in New Zealand's UFB Initiative," Working Paper Series 4134, Victoria University of Wellington, The New Zealand Institute for the Study of Competition and Regulation.
    19. Bourreau, Marc & Feasey, Richard & Nicolle, Ambre, 2020. "Assessing fifteen years of State Aid for broadband in the European Union: A quantitative analysis," Telecommunications Policy, Elsevier, vol. 44(7).
    20. Matteucci, Nicola, 2019. "The EU State aid policy for broadband: An evaluation of the Italian experience with first generation networks," Telecommunications Policy, Elsevier, vol. 43(9).

    More about this item

    Keywords

    WiFi4EU; ICT regulation; Gigabit Society; Rural connectivity; digital divide;
    All these keywords.

    NEP fields

    This paper has been announced in the following NEP Reports:

    Statistics

    Access and download statistics

    Corrections

    All material on this site has been provided by the respective publishers and authors. You can help correct errors and omissions. When requesting a correction, please mention this item's handle: RePEc:zbw:itse19:205200. See general information about how to correct material in RePEc.

    If you have authored this item and are not yet registered with RePEc, we encourage you to do it here. This allows to link your profile to this item. It also allows you to accept potential citations to this item that we are uncertain about.

    If CitEc recognized a bibliographic reference but did not link an item in RePEc to it, you can help with this form .

    If you know of missing items citing this one, you can help us creating those links by adding the relevant references in the same way as above, for each refering item. If you are a registered author of this item, you may also want to check the "citations" tab in your RePEc Author Service profile, as there may be some citations waiting for confirmation.

    For technical questions regarding this item, or to correct its authors, title, abstract, bibliographic or download information, contact: ZBW - Leibniz Information Centre for Economics (email available below). General contact details of provider: http://www.itseurope.org/ .

    Please note that corrections may take a couple of weeks to filter through the various RePEc services.

    IDEAS is a RePEc service. RePEc uses bibliographic data supplied by the respective publishers.