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Rural Access to Broadband
August 4th, 2010 by admin
While many countries are expanding broadband access to rural areas, the remoteness of many rural residents in Australia creates somewhat unique issues. European countries have a relatively high population density even in rural areas, so providing rural broadband is more economically viable in those areas. Portions of the United States and Canada share similarities with Australia, as the population density is very low in specific regions. The economics of providing broadband to remote areas is a very real problem, but does that mean those areas should remain isolated?
While there are alternatives to rural broadband, most are not as desirable for most consumers. Satellite communications, for example, offer service but have proven to be problematic for users needing or desiring the ability to utilize features requiring high speed uploading. Today, videoconferencing is commonplace throughout the world, but access to systems that provide high-speed uploading are required, and satellite services have not been able to reliably provide that capability.
In recent years, the utilization of broadband has exploded in Australia, with service providers reporting a huge increase in the number of subscribers. However, most of those increases are in more highly populated areas where the cost effectiveness for service providers is more obvious. Infrastructure for providing the same level of service for less densely populated regions is not as attractive for providers. Does that mean that for those living in those regions rural broadband is not likely to be provided? Is the option of subsidized services for those areas something that should be evaluated? It would appear to be obvious that such service would never be economically viable, but should the cost be spread over the entire system? Is that fair to urban users?
If unrestricted access to rural broadband service is accepted as a requirement for fairness, then the next logical step is for a comprehensive plan to be developed to make that access a reality for all rural residents. Given the fact that this is not a problem unique to Australia, perhaps conferring with other countries sharing the same issues to develop potential solutions to the basic economic issues is worth considering. As broadband communications appears to be the future for most areas, equal access to that service should be a common goal.