The social context of broadband infrastructure sharing

• Authors: Sharol Sibongile Mkhomazi;Tiko Iyamu
• Venue: Proceedings of the 13th International Conference on Information Integration and Web-based Applications and Services
• Year: 2011

The expansion of broadband services and infrastructure to rural areas have become globally recognized as an essential input to quality of education, healthcare, e-government and economic advantages and opportunities. In this regard, rural communities in developing countries in particular are challenged and lag behind in terms of innovations. As a result, many rural areas do not have telecommunication network coverage and without telecommunication, no current market information is available to promoting economic growth and development in these areas. The diversity in geographical landscapes, topographical barriers and relatively low demand as a result of high costs, hampers the deployment of broadband to rural communities. Apart from the geographical landscapes, the competitiveness among the different telecommunications network service providers prevents them from reaching a joint position to share infrastructure which could address the network coverage in the rural areas. Hence the government intervention, to broker interaction and facilitate infrastructure sharing amongst telecommunication companies through formulation of policies. Shared infrastructure is aimed at improving wider broadband coverage in extended geographical areas in the country. This paper explored the social context of how broadband infrastructure can be shared in the rural areas for the benefit of both the service provider and the consumers (the communities).