Broadband Deployment Research Articles

AlpArray in Austria and Slovakia: technical realization, site description and noise characterization

Abstract. We report the technical realization and performance of thirty temporary seismic broadband deployments for the AlpArray project in eastern Austria and western Slovakia. Reftek 151 60s sensors and Reftek 130/130S digitizers form the core instrumentation of our seismic stations; these are mostly installed inside abandoned or occasionally used basements or cellars in small buildings or huts. We describe our type of installation and briefly introduce the site conditions for each of the thirty installations. We present a probabilistic power spectral density analysis to assess the noise conditions at all sites and potential relations to the installation design.

Community-led broadband in rural digital infrastructure development: Implications for resilience

Community-led broadband initiatives represent a relatively recent shift in rural broadband provision. They are locally-led organisations that voluntarily spring up to respond to the lack, or perceived lack, of adequate broadband in their communities. Particularly present in rural spaces, few studies have investigated this mode of broadband delivery, which is gaining attention in the United Kingdom and internationally. This paper seeks to explore the implications of the participatory nature of such broadband initiatives, identifying a) whether pursuing a participatory community-led model for broadband deployment plays a role in enhancing rural social resilience, and b) specifically how leadership and informal digital champions are positioned and perceived throughout this process, and their relationship with rural social resilience. The conceptual framework of ‘social resilience’ acts as a contemporary analytical tool for understanding the impact of community-led broadband. Using findings from 56 semi-structured interviews across two phases from two community-led broadband organisations, Broadband for the Rural North (B4RN) in England and Broadband for Glencaple and Lowther (B4GAL) in Scotland, this paper contributes to both digital scholarship and the theoretical development of ‘resilience’ as a concept.Community-led broadband is shown to reflect a ‘localism’ development approach, and this process has strengthened local rural identity for individuals. The role of digital champions, as leaders in the community-led broadband movement, is key to developing the digital resource within rural communities. However, it can also be problematic, entrenching existing inequalities and feelings concerning exclusion, ultimately detracting from individuals' ability to participate. The process and the eventual presence of new technology have contributed to new spatial understandings of community identity, based on regional linkages, and new communities of interest. We conclude that community-led broadband, and in particular the leadership and participation processes, can contribute to social resilience overall, but ultimately is another example of uneven rural development.

Analysis of Mobile Broadband Service Penetration in South Korea

ABSTRACTThe expansion of mobile broadband services will bring noticeable changes to the market and also have an impact on society. The penetration of mobile broadband services is generally regarded to be a crucial factor for economic growth and global competitiveness of a nation. South Korea continues to hold the global lead in mobile broadband penetration despite the fact that it is neither a technological leader nor a developed nation. This article examines the factors underlying the explosive growth in the number of subscribers to high-speed mobile broadband services in Korea. These factors are analyzed under the theoretical frameworks of the diffusion of innovations and Porter’s diamond model of determinants of national competitive advantage. Korea’s success in mobile broadband deployment is characterized in terms of government support and coordination, supply-side and demand-side conditions, and competition in the market. Several implications for policymakers are provided from the analysis of this study.

The Digital Divide Is Closing, Even as New Fissures Surface

Access to ubiquitous and affordable high-speed Internet is essential to many aspects of modern society. The Internet can assist in activities like accessing employment opportunities, healthcare options, affordable housing, and educational resources. However, millions of Americans still do not use the Internet, and even among those who do, the speed, quality and form of access can vary greatly. We seek to better understand the challenges faced by non-adopters and under-connected Americans using new data from the July 2015 Computer and Internet Use Supplement to the Current Population Survey. We find that the nature of the digital divide is evolving. As usage habits and technologies change, new disparities are appearing, even while others gradually narrow. New divides based on the cost of owning multiple Internet-enabled devices appear to be surfacing. To better understand the changing needs of underserved communities, we examine three important and emerging trends. First, we analyze survey data from Internet non-adopters. NTIA added new questions to its 2015 survey in order to better understand why households report not using the Internet. We allowed households to report multiple reasons for not using the Internet, enabling us to better understand why some households are not online. We also asked whether households lacking home Internet service would subscribe to such a service if it were offered at a lower price. Second, we look specifically at one group of low adopters: rural communities. Americans in rural communities may face a disadvantage based on cumulative impact of various barriers to Internet use. For example, rural areas often face high broadband deployment costs, and may lack local facilities that offer public Internet access (e.g., community centers). Together, these factors may further depress Internet use in rural areas among those demographic groups already facing disparities, such low-income households. To understand these issues, we compare Internet use for similar demographic groups in rural and urban areas. Research suggests that, particularly among groups traditionally affected by the digital divide, Internet adoption rates are lower in rural areas.Third, we focus on the diversification of devices used to access the Internet. The proliferation of devices means more people have more alternatives for getting online. However, this trend may open up a new digital divide, based on whether an individual has access to the right type of device for a particular task. Using a smartphone to access the Internet, for example, has qualitative strengths and weaknesses compared to using a laptop computer. To better understand this new divide, we investigate device use, particularly for those most likely to be on the wrong side of the digital divide.Stimulating greater Internet use is an important and widely-prioritized public policy goal. In considering the best strategies to reach this goal, it is important to have a full, nuanced, and granular picture of the digital divide. Looking ahead, policy makers need to better understand how this divide is evolving with Internet and technology usage. Our paper aims to address these questions.

The Efficiency and Effectiveness of a Mixed Public-Private Broadband Deployment: The Case of New Zealand's Ultra Fast Broadband Deployment

The Efficiency and Effectiveness of a Mixed Public-Private Broadband Deployment: The Case of New Zealand's Ultra Fast Broadband Deployment

Pattern matrix design of PDMA for 5G UL applications

Pattern division multiple access (PDMA), which is a novel non-orthogonal multiple access (NOMA), has been proposed to address the challenges of massive connectivity and higher spectral efficiency for fifth generation (5G) mobile network. The performance of PDMA mainly depends on the design of PDMA pattern matrix. In this paper, pattern matrix design of PDMA for 5G uplink (UL) applications in massive machine type communication (mMTC) and enhanced mobile broadband (eMBB) deployment scenarios are studied. The design criteria and examples for application in UL mMTC and UL eMBB are investigated. The performance of the PDMA pattern matrix is analyzed with the discrete constellation constrained capacity (CC-Capacity), and verified by Monte Carlo simulation. The simulation results show that the preferred PDMA pattern matrix can achieve good performance with different overloading factors (OF).

Infrastructure Sharing Among Ghana’s Mobile Telecommunication Networks: Benefits and Challenges

In Ghana network companies such as Vodafone, Mobile Telecommunication Network, Airtel, Tigo, Expresso and Globacom (GLO) are experiencing increasing subscribers for voice calls, internet and video services. Competition in the industry has been intensified making service providers searching for innovative strategies to survive the competition. Strategies adopted to survive the stiff competition include rebranding, infrastructure sharing and mergers and acquisitions. This study focuses on infrastructure sharing as a strategy to reducing cost for these telecommunication service providers in Ghana. Mobile telecommunication industry in developing countries has players a remarkable role in providing services to large portion of the population. Despite the achievement in reaching large numbers, extra efforts are needed to increase the mobile service penetration. In increasing the penetration, attention needs to be focused on the rural areas. High network infrastructure cost has been the major problem. As operators strive to recoup investment cost associated with building the expensive infrastructure, customers tends to suffer from high network charges/ prices. Infrastructure sharing presents itself as a means of lowering network deployment cost, especially in rural and marginalized areas. Sharing has an advantage to stimulate migration to new technologies and mobile broadband deployment. Arguably, another advantage is the stirring up of competition between mobile operators and service providers, when safeguards are used to prevent anti-competitive behavior.

Does State Aid for Broadband Deployment in Rural Areas Close the Digital and Economic Divide?

We evaluate the impact of a major European state aid program for broadband deployment applied to rural areas in the German State of Bavaria in the years 2010 and 2011. Using difference-in-differences estimation strategies, we find that aided municipalities have – depending on broadband quality – a between 16.8 and 23.2 percent higher broadband coverage than non-aided municipalities. This increase in broadband coverage – closing the digital divide – results in an increase of on average seven employed individuals living in the respective aid-receiving municipalities while leaving the number of employed or selfemployed individuals or wages unaffected. We therefore conclude that an increase in broadband coverage through state aid prevents rural areas from depopulation, but does not contribute to a further closing of the economic divide in the form of creating new jobs.

Debt and communications technology diffusion: Retrospective evidence

This study has evaluated the relationship between debt in the capital structure of firms and the dynamics of broadband and digital technology adoption in the United States, based on a large dataset on local exchange carriers in the United States over a contemporary historical fourteen year period from 1988 to 2001. Using treatment effects modeling, the impact of debt in impacting the levels of firms’ broadband deployment has been found to be negative and significant. The primary source of debt in the sector has been in the form of arm's-length corporate bonds and the assumptions of the monitoring hypothesis associated with such debt, that lenders, in the face of information and collective actions problems, might not be able to control managers and hence invest less in highly technology-intensive situations, are supported by the data. Additionally, the data set has been split into separate sets for two periods, one between 1988 and 1995, for the period before the Telecommunications Act of 1996 came into force, and the other set between 1996 and 2001, and the results have stayed consistent. A test of the coefficients between the two periods has shown that the negative impact of leverage on broadband deployment has become stronger after the introduction of competition in the sector, and this has suggested that the change in the institutional logics between the two periods has been of material impact in influencing lenders’ perceptions.

The employment and wage impact of broadband deployment in Canada

AbstractHundreds of millions of dollars are spent by the Canadian federal and provincial governments to subsidize broadband deployment. This paper provides the first empirical assessment of the impact of broadband on employment and wage growth in Canada. Variation in elevation explains the regional difference in broadband coverage and is used as an instrument to estimate the causal effect. We find that the deployment of broadband in 1997–2011 promoted rural employment and wage growth in service industries. Goods industries were not impacted. The findings suggest that broadband helps service industry businesses overcome geographical barriers that have traditionally hampered rural growth.

Local Economic Impacts of Investments in Community Technology Centers: An Empirical Investigation

The objective of this study is to analyze the local economic impact of investments in community technology centers (CTSs). More broadly, it asks the question whether investments in CTCs are primarily motivated by considerations of equity and social justice, or whether there is an economic rationale that can justify such investments.The community technology center movement has a long pedigree, both in the United States and abroad. Historically, their motivation was to extend information and communication technology (ICT) access and training services to communities and individuals deprived of such services because of low socioeconomic status or lack of digital literacy. In effect, they were seen as universal service programs for those who could not afford household ICT access. However, CTCs also provided a host of services that might have economic consequences: digital literacy training, small business services, job training, etc. These services may cumulatively be expected to have effects on local economic growth, through encouraging small business entrepreneurship, lowering unemployment and enhancing local labor skills. Identifying the magnitude of these economic consequences, if any, is critical to ensuring continuing public support to CTCs.The relationship between telecommunications and economic growth has been long recognized in the economics literature, ever since Jipp’s pioneering work found a positive correlation between telephone density in a country and per capita Gross Domestic Product (GDP). By substituting for other production inputs and reducing transaction costs, telecommunications contributes to economic growth. Growth in turn makes more investment capital available for telecommunications development and also contributes to demand by increasing household income. However, establishing a connection between CTC investments and economic growth is harder, and has not been explicitly addressed in the literature. Analysis of the economic consequences of investments in CTCs is also complicated by lack of quality data as well as methodological issues. Data availability is a major concern, since no centralized database of CTC investments exists — most CTCs are run by a wide variety of entities including municipalities and city governments, charitable foundations, industry and trade groups, and public libraries. To solve this problem, we use data on CTCs from two sources that provide information on subsets of all CTCs: data for CTCs attached to public libraries are available from the Institute of Museum and Library Services (IMLS); and data from the National Broadband Map (NBM) for Public Computing Centers (PCCs) funded through the Broadband Technology Opportunities Program (BTOP). The IMLS data tracks individual libraries and PCCs and logs the types of services available at each location, including digital literacy courses and general education assistance. The NMB data includes the periodic reports to the NTIA from recipients of PCC grants about the number of new and improved PCCs, the number of new and upgraded workstations available to the public, hours of operation, average connection speed, primary uses of the PCCs, average users per day, and training provided with BTOP funds. We supplement this with information on broadband availability from the National Broadband Map; and socioeconomic and demographic information from the U.S. Bureau of the Census such as poverty level, average income, average household size of the region, and geographic data such as population and the ratio of the population living in rural areas.In terms of method, models for the economic consequences of ICT and broadband deployment need to account for the simultaneity bias and spurious correlation. The incremental economic effect of CTCs needs to be isolated from that of the availability of broadband and ICTs in the wider community; it needs to rule out reverse causality, namely the tendency of wealthier communities to invest more in all public infrastructures including CTCs; and it needs to control for trends in the overall national and regional economies. Our paper utilizes an econometric model that addresses these methodological issues using appropriate controls and instrumental variables. The outcome of this research will provide inputs into the relative merits of the investments of scarce public resources into CTCs or other public infrastructure investments. It has significant implications for public policies aiming at universal broadband access through middle mile institutions, as well as for the creation of community resources and local development.

Out of the Frying Pan & into the Fire: The FCC Takes over Privacy Regulation

In late 2014, the FCC imposed an unprecedented $10 million fine against Terracom — not for violating the FCC’s CPNI rules issued under Section 222(b) and (e), but for failing to provide “reasonable” data security, a duty the Commission found, for the first time, to flow from the general language of Section 222(a) and the “just and reasonable” standard of Section 201(b). In March, the FCC reclassified all broadband providers under Title II — and chose not to forbear from applying either of these sections to broadband. The FCC has promised to clarify what its approach will be in the future.This paper will explore this evolving issue in depth, including several key legal questions: What does the Open Internet order’s discussion of IP addresses as the equivalent of phone numbers (in order to justify reinterpretation of “public switched network” and thus reclassification of wireless) mean for privacy regulation? How will CPNI regulation, traditionally focused on the adequacy of opt-in consent, evolve? How might the FCC use its sweeping “general conduct” standard or its claimed Section 706 authority over data practices? (The FCC’s 2014 706(b) NOI specifically asked how privacy and security concerns affect broadband deployment.) How might the FCC’s case-by-case enforcement approach work without clear limiting principles? Is the FCC essentially creating a murkier version of the FTC’s unfairness standard? What lessons can be learned from the experience of the FTC with unfairness and, more recently, with data security and privacy regulation?How far might the FCC’s regulation extend? Might the FCC reclassify other services beyond broadband? Might it indirectly regulate non-common carriers by maintaining that telecom carriers have a duty not to “permit access” (Section 222(c)(1)) to CPNI by, say, mobile operating system or apps operators except subject to a flow-through of CPNI obligations? Will broadband providers, especially mobile operators, become the new intermediaries responsible for policing the data practices of other players in the ecosystem? This paper will describe where the FCC may head, the pitfalls of various approaches, and offer normative suggestions for how the FCC, FTC and Congress should handle the privacy and data security practices of broadband providers (and other related services).

A Symmetrical Regulation for an Intensified Very High Broadband Deployment

After two decades of regulations promoting competition in the European telecommunications sector, the European Commission has announced it will soon be revised. From former monopolies to intense competition on the broadband and very high broadband markets, the landscape has changed drastically since the regulatory framework was implemented. Taking into account the objectives and priorities of the new Commission, the revision of the regulatory framework will have to assess the current regulation’s outcome in respect to competition and investment and its possible drawbacks in that respect. Mobile only operators weakened in a fixed‐mobile converging world, debatable concepts like the “ladder of investments”, challenges such as the definition and characteristics of network access services and unbalanced interconnection fee flows are some of the elements to be considered. At the end of the review, in a forward‐looking view, the Commission will have to modernise the framework to better suit the current and future telecommunications landscapes. The evolution of this market must be sustained by heavy and continuous investment, especially in new generation networks, that demands an optimal level of competition for these investments to occur. Such an optimal level of competition promotes investment, giving rise to the continuous integration of advanced technologies and, as a result, reducing network capacity unit costs and ultimately unit prices. All the elements gathered lead us to propose a high priority for the new framework, namely investment in new networks and the adaptation of the regulatory rules in line with this objective. The level of competition and the continuous need for investments call for a move from the current asymmetric regulation, based on the SMP concept, to a symmetric one, to regulate fixed network access and interconnections, better suited and less intrusive for the benefit of the consumer and the European digital economy. Furthermore, the mobile market

Policies to Facilitate FTTP Deployment

The major technology development for wireline voice, data, and video service is fiber-to-the-premises (FTTP), and telephone and cable television companies as well as governments and industry regulators are all concerned with the speed and extent of deployment of FTTP. This paper analyzes alternative policies that will affect that deployment of FTTP.FTTP is a technology to deliver voice, data, and video service. FTTP is not a final product or service itself but is a delivery platform that competes with other delivery platforms including copper wires, copper networks with a fiber backbone, fiber-to-the-node (FTTN), cable systems with hybrid fiber-coax networks, wireless (particularly LTE and LTE-A), and other network technologies. This is the case whether FTTP is used by the carrier deploying FTTP or whether the FTTP or space on the FTTP is sold by that carrier in a wholesale transaction to another service provider that uses the FTTP to deploy voice, data, and video services.At this time, the products and services delivered over FTTP are not materially different from the products and services delivered, or that can be delivered, using other technologies. Even broadband speeds of 100 MBS can typically be provided over copper networks properly configured and by cable companies using their current technology. While FTTP may be required to provide very high speed broadband, such as 1 GB service, these services do not yet have significant demand in the market. Nonetheless, in the future there will most likely be services that can only be provided over FTTP, so the deployment of FTTP is an important policy issue.There are two competing approaches to FTTP deployment. One approach is to treat FTTP as a monopoly, or to create an FTTP monopoly, selecting one company to construct the FTTP network and mandating that all other service providers have access to this network. The other approach is to encourage or permit multiple FTTP networks and to not mandate access to any of the networks by other service providers. Of course, combinations of these policies are also possible. For example, the FTTP network might be treated as a monopoly with mandated access, but other companies would not be prohibited from constructing their own networks. Alternatively, access to some FTTP networks might be mandated, but the terms of that access might be subject to commercial negotiation. Other policies are also possible.While arguments for and against any of these policies can be made, and have been made, on a theoretical basis, there is now an increasing amount of actual evidence weighing upon which of these policies are most successful, and are likely to be most successful, in facilitating the deployment of FTTP. It is just this evidence that this paper proposes to consider in order to make recommendations insofar as possible about the expected success or failure of alternative policies. This evidence comes from two sources. One source is evidence from the wireline industry regarding investment and FTTP deployment. The other source is evidence from the wireless industry where there has also been varying degrees of mandatory access with consequences on the deployment of new technology. Considering the evidence on the effect of alternative policies on the deployment of new technologies should contribute to moving the policy debate beyond the theoretical and hypothetical.A Sample of ReferencesBeltran, Fernando, “Fibre-to-the-home, high-speed and national broadband plans: Tales from Down Under,” Telecommunications Policy, 38 (2014) 715-729.Bennett, Richard, Luke A. Steward and Robert D. Atkinson, “The Whole Picture: Where America’s Broadband Networks Really Stand,” Information and Technology & Innovation Foundation, Washington, D. C., 2013.Cave, Martin, “The ladder of investment in Europe, in retrospect and prospect,” Telecommunications Policy, 38 (2014), 674-683.Crandall, Robert W., “The Effects of Mandated Network Unbundling on FTTP Deployment,” submitted to the Canadian Radio-Television and Telecommunications Commission, January 31, 2014.Flacher, David, and Hugues Jennequin, “Access regulation and geographic deployment of new generation infrastructure,” Telecommunications Policy, 38 (2014), 741-759.Kongaut, Chatchai, and Erik Bohlin, “Unbundling and infrastructure competition for broadband adoption: Implications for NGA regulation,” Telecommunications Policy, 38 (2014), 760-770.OECD, Communications Outlook, 2013.“Ofcom proposes new pricing rule for BT’s wholesale fibre offerings,” Telegeography, January 15, 2015.Yoo, Christopher S., “U. S. vs. European Broadband Deployment: What Do the Data Say?”, Center for Technology, Innovation and Competition, University of Pennsylvania Law School, June 2014.

The broadband digital divide and the benefits of mobile broadband for minorities

This study sets out the facts regarding broadband deployment and usage in the US and the particular promise of mobile broadband for minorities. Fixed broadband is nearly ubiquitous and most people have access to four or more mobile broadband providers. Growth in fixed broadband usage is leveling off, while mobile broadband usage growth remains robust. Blacks and Hispanics generally have fewer fixed broadband options but more mobile broadband providers available. Gaps in broadband usage overall (fixed and mobile combined) for minorities persist and are quite large. Matching estimators show that lagging broadband adoption among minority groups is not fully accounted for by demographic and economic characteristics. Mobile broadband holds particular promise for minorities regarding healthcare and e-health, and these communities have relatively greater reliance on mobile forms of broadband. Two important findings are that 1) blacks are more likely to access the Internet using a mobile phone than whites (after controlling for demographic differences between the groups), and 2) there is no significant gap in mobile broadband usage between minorities and whites by either of the two measures of usage considered. Implications of the findings for policy toward spectrum allocation and wireless taxes are discussed.

Technologies and Policies to Connect the Next Five Billion

In this Article, we present a broadband deployment framework describing how “the next five billion” may be connected to the Internet in the future. This framework identifies the most promising Internet technologies and the areas where they should be deployed. To summarize, we see wireless platforms being used in rural markets and other areas that will benefit greatly from a high degree of shared infrastructure, particularly with an electrical powering solution. Over time, fiber-based networks will gradually fill across the network, migrating from the core to the edge. In our research, we also describe and promote a certain set of policies (many of which may not require laws) that will facilitate the prompt and efficient deployment of broadband infrastructure. These policies include (1) promoting shared infrastructure, (2) liberalizing spectrum policy, (3) facilitating access and interconnection through Internet exchange points, (4) creating an ecosystem that stimulates demand for broadband (and associated innovation, entrepreneurship, and technical experimentation), and (5) sharing information and discussing best practices among parties with common interests within geographical regions. © 2014 David Reed, Jennifer Haroon & Patrick S. Ryan. † The Principle Investigator for this project is David P. Reed, Ph.D., otherwise authors are listed alphabetically. Author David Reed is Faculty Director and Scholar in Residence at the University of Colorado Interdisciplinary Telecommunications Program. Author Jennifer Haroon is a Principal, Access Strategy and Operations at Google. Author Patrick S. Ryan, Ph.D., is Senior Policy Counsel for International Relations and Free Expression at Google and Senior Affiliated Researcher at the Katholieke Universiteit Leuven (Belgium). The opinions expressed here are those of the authors and do not reflect the opinions of their employers. 1206 BERKELEY TECHNOLOGY LAW JOURNAL [Vol. 29:1205

How the FCC Can Preserve the Open Internet & Net Neutrality Through Title II Reclassification

The case for reclassifying broadband internet access under Title II, and adopting rules that protect the Open Internet and ensure net neutrality. Introduction & Background: The recent 2014 Notice of Proposed Rulemaking regarding Net Neutrality represents an opportunity for the Federal Communications Commission to choose a communications future of innovation, creative exchange, and consumer choice, rather than one where powerful companies can alter the Internet to support entrenched business models. The Commission was certainly correct when it stated that the Internet is “America’s most important platform for economic growth, innovation, competition, free expression, and broadband investment and deployment.” As a non-profit organization focused on providing free and low-cost legal assistance to independent creators, internet users, and start-up entrepreneurs (such as musicians, artists, filmmakers, mobile app developers, and more), New Media Rights (“NMR”) is reminded daily of the innumerable benefits the Internet can provide to American innovators, creators, and consumers. As the Commission suggests, these benefits largely flow from the open architecture of the Internet and its low barriers to entry. However, in recent years this openness has been challenged by fixed and mobile broadband internet access providers. We stand at a fork in the road, and if the Commission cannot implement strong, certain, and legally defensible rules to maintain the basic tenants of Net Neutrality (Transparency, No Blocking, No Discrimination), the trend away from an Open Internet is likely to continue to the detriment of not only American consumers and innovators, but American society as a whole.

Hot upwelling conduit beneath the Atlas Mountains, Morocco

AbstractThe Atlas Mountains of Morocco display high topography, no deep crustal root, and regions of localized Cenozoic alkaline volcanism. Previous seismic imaging and geophysical studies have implied a hot mantle upwelling as the source of the volcanism and high elevation. However, the existence, shape, and physical properties of an associated mantle anomaly are debated. Here we use seismic waveform analysis from a broadband deployment and geodynamic modeling to define the physical properties and morphology of the anomaly. The imaged low‐velocity structure extends to ~200 km beneath the Atlas and appears ~350 K hotter than the ambient mantle with possible partial melting. It includes a lateral conduit, which suggests that the Quaternary volcanism arises from the upper mantle. Moreover, the shape and temperature of the imaged anomaly indicate that the unusually high topography of the Atlas Mountains is due to active mantle support.

Investment in Fixed Broadband Networks and Access Regulation in Developed and Developing Countries: Panel Data Applications

Since the USA Telecommunications Act of 1996, the regulatory frameworks, have led to the requirement of different policy practices in many countries across the world in order to establish sustainable competition in whole telecommunication markets. These regulatory reforms are the privatization of the telecom historical integrated monopoly (the incumbent), the independency of the regulatory authority, the obligation of transparency of the access price and agreements & the unbundling, the separation and the access pricing policies. This paper suggests an empirical investigation on both the individual, and the global impacts of these different regulatory policy practices on broadband deployment. To this end, we construct a panel data covering 107 developed and developing countries over the period of eight years from 2004 to 2011. Using the Instrumental variables (IV) & the Generalized Method of Moments (GMM) with fixed effects and robust to heteroskedastic and autocorrelated errors, we show that the relationship between regulation and broadband investment is an inverted U shape in developed world while it takes a U form in developing countries. This means that in developed countries, a less restrictive regulatory policy spurs broadband deployment while more stringent policy discourages innovation in telecom industry. However, in the developing countries, the regulation has a strict negative impact on broadband deployment.

Economic Broadband Development through Infrastructure Sharing

Broadband is a public utility with positive effects on competitiveness, employment and growth. Although evidence shows that broadband development is increasing, this increment is not homogeneous between urban and rural areas. The main factor is the high cost for deploying next generation networks in rural areas, and especially the cost linked to civil engineering works. In order to overcome the investment challenges arising in the context of broadband deployment, the European Commission made mandatory the sharing of existing telecommunication and non-telecommunication infrastructures and facilities. This manuscript proposes and presents a novel tool that enables the estimation of the expected savings from exploiting existing infrastructures when deploying a broadband network. This is followed by a number of general principles and recommendations that policy makers and national authorities could embrace to diminish deployment costs and promote broadband deployment.