broadband infrastructure in the county of møre and romsdal and rural regional development judith...

Broadband Infrastructure in the County of Møre and Romsdal

and Rural Regional Development

Judith Molka-Danielsen, Ottar Ohren, & Bjørn Jæger Molde University College, Molde, Norway

NOKOBIT , Oslo, 24.-26. november 2003 2

Outline

1. Background

2. Motivation and Research Objectives

3. Research method

4. The county of Møre & Romsdal

5. Findings

6. Conclusion and Implications


Background• The eNorway plan, from the national

government, describes a demand driven broadband policy

• Competition among network providers should give broadband access to everyone

• Local governments are supported with partial funding for buying broadband services

• Municipalities are expected to stimulate demand by

• Being an active user of broadband services (schools, administration, health, etc)

• Offering broadband services to people (e-Government)

• Cooperate and co-ordinate with local businesses to increase demand for broadband services


A snapshot of Møre and Romsdal

Motivation• Local administrators and policy makers are afraid that their region

will be left behind in the competition.• There is a belief that access to broadband services could reduce

centralization, or reinforce decentralization.• Uncertainty on how a demand driven model will work in rural

areas.


Research Objectives

1. How does the demand driven policy work in rural areas?

2. To investigate the broadband expectations from local governments, what they planned for, and to what degree the expectations where fulfilled.

i. Availability of infrastructure

ii. Types of public service units w/BB access

iii. Applications of ICT used by communities


Research method• One survey in April 2001 to M&R

municipalities and businesses to find out about plans and expectations– (1260 businesses and 38 municipalities where

asked. 17 of 38 responded.)• Follow up survey to M&R municipalities Nov.

2002 to check status regarding broadband adoption (38 of 38 responded.)

• Comparison with other studies (Andalucia region and Madrid region, Spain)


Møre & Romsdal County

• 244000 citizens, 15000 sq km, 16 person/sq. km2

• 3 urban centers with population of 20000 – 40000• 33 % of population lives in urban centers• 84 % of companies have < 10 employees• 38 municipalities


Findings

i. Availability of Broadband Infrastructure

ii. Types of Public Service Institutions or departments with Broadband Access

iii. Applications of ICT Used by Communities


i) Availability of BroadbandM&R Network access technology

Technology municipalities with->

% in 4/2001

% in 11/2002

% change

Wireless radio

12 31 19%

ADSL /SDSL / VDSL

6 31 25%

Fiber 24 40 16%

Coaxial cable network

6 6 0%


Regional Comparisons

Area M&R

Norway

Andalucia

Spain

Madrid

Spain

Tot.pop. 244k 7,478k 5,527k

Area km2 15k 87,3k 8kDensity=per/km2 16 85,7 688,4

% of nat. pop. 5,37% 17,9% 13,2%


The Madrid region (Spain)

ADSL DeploymentCable Deployment

Number of Madrid municipalities with ADSL by number of inhabitants

pop/km2

ADSL< 250 251-500

501-1,000

1,001-1,500

1,501-2,500

> 2,500

YesNo

0 + (4)19

1 + (3)14

514

49

1212

820


The Andalucia region (Spain)

• 32 % of population is located in provincial capitals• 18 % of population has access to internet• 17 % of the households have access to internet• 96 % of companies have < 10 employees • 3% of households have access to cable networks.• 14 % of households in Spain have the possibility

to have broadband access (ADSL).

http://en2.wikipedia.org/wiki/Image:Ccaa-andalusia.png


ii) Access to BB via Public Service UnitOrganizational units with broadband access

Broadband users ECON Analysis 2003

% of municipalities

Norway (all) M&R(all) Rural

Central admin. 49% 48 41

Primary schools 34% 51 45

Healthcare inst. 45 39

Preschools 20 16

Cultural inst. (library, movies)

43% 31 26

Other institutions or departments

8 7


ii) Are social factors an inhibitor for obtaining access to Broadband?

• Norway: (This seems to not be an inhibitor.) – 75 % of the population (70% households) has access to

internet (persons > 13 years)– 65 % of the population lives in the southern part of the

country, 64 % in urban areas– But the population is very homogeneous in education,

income, and language skills.

• Spain and the Andalusia region: – 23% of the population of Spain have access to the

internet.– 18.2% of the region have access to the internet.– 23% of the population under 15 years old. – Andalusia is below the national average in education

and income. (Related to population youth.)


In M&R geography creates a challenge for transport and communication services.


iii) Applications of ICT used by communities: .. first the prerequisites

Applications and

Bandwidth requirements

ECON Analysis (2003) needs for basic

QoS

uplink downlink

Information searching, browsing on the Internet

64k 64k

E-mail 64k 64k

File transfer 128k 128k

Video conferencing 256k 256k

Video on Demand (MPEG 4) 64k 500k


iii) Applications of ICT used by communities

Applications % of municipalities

All municipalities Use at all(2-5)

Much use(4-5)

Information searching on the Internet 91 47

Web site of community information 100 26

E-mail 85 56

Education of employees 29 3

Network meetings 0 0

Purchasing via public e-marketplaces 50 9

Electronic invoicing 6 6


E-applications usage by M&R communities

0

20

40

60

80

100

120

% o

f m

un

icip

alit

ies

Some use Much or very much use

0

20

40

60

80

100

120

Searc

h

Prese

ntatio

n

e-mail

Traini

ng

Purch

asing

Invo

icing

% o

f m

un

icip

ali

tie

s

Some use Much or very much use

Urban(3)

Rural(35)


Expected vs Actual use of applications- all municipalities

0

20

40

60

80

100

120

Presentation ofinformation

Purchasing Training Network meetings

% o

f m

un

icip

alit

ies

Expected in 2001 Actual use in 2002

70

5058

2935

0

100 100


Conclusion and implications• Communities in M&R are achieving access to

Broadband as planned 1,5 years earlier. But:– The adoption or use of broadband applications is

taking longer time than expected.– Many communities are using middle bandwidth access.

• It is a problem if their expectations of Broadband is too

general. <Broadband=High QoS> But, realized QoS is a gradient function of the bandwidth.

• Maybe they feel the applications are not ready yet. This could justify their decision to delay investments in even higher bandwidth access. (This is a chicken and egg problem.)

expected QoS of BB investment

real QoS based on investments

H

Ltime


Conclusion and implications• A purely demand driven model seems to be insufficient to

ensure broadband access in rural areas.– Market size is a big challenge in M&R for attracting broadband

providers. The population density in M&R is smaller than in even the most rural areas of Spain.

– National policies and support are needed in these areas. Investments in technology types in Spain seem to follow national policies (ADSL is easier).

– The relative density differences between urban and rural area in Spain is larger than in Norway. There should be a more equal distribution of investments between urban and rural areas in Norway.

• Other solutions may be needed to extend availability. – Aggregation of demand across telecom services (electricity +

internet).

broadband infrastructure in the county of møre and romsdal and rural regional development judith...

Documents

broadband access

broadband expectations

spain slide

broadband adoption

norway slide

communities slide

broadband policy competition

mr municipalities