Rural Broadband Quality is an Issue, if Not the Issue Policymakers Often Suggest

A survey conducted by the U.K.-based National Innovation Centre for Rural Enterprise (NICRE) differences confirms what virtually everyone would acknowledge: rural broadband networks are perceived to be worse than urban networks in terms of speed, for example. The NICRE also argues that inferior broadband also reduces rural firm resilience. 

source: NICRE 

The obvious solution to this problem is to improve the quality of rural broadband. That should be done, of course. But the claimed upside from such improvements is hard to quantify. 

The problem is that rural areas virtually always have more of some attributes and less of other attributes that correlate with economic growth. 

Rural areas have fewer businesses, fewer jobs, lower wages and longer transport distances to urban areas. That lower density of activity is directly reflected in opportunities to foster economic growth.

source: Internatiional Labor Organization 

Rural areas also tend to have lower average household incomes, lower educational attainment and  older average age profiles. All of those attributes are correlated with lower use of technology in general. 

The point is that rural area broadband quality does tend to be lower than what is found in urban areas. But so are most other measures of economic activity. Even if rural broadband were, in every respect, identical to what is found in urban areas, those other correlations would continue to exist. 

Even if quality broadband were to eliminate virtual good distance issues, broadband would not eliminate the distance issue as it pertains to all physical goods. And that would still shape rural area ability to improve economic growth. 

Nobody would likely argue that quality broadband makes rural life worse. Policymakers always argue quality broadband makes economic growth or rural life better. But it remains plausible that even quality broadband will do little to boost economic growth in rural areas.

The reason is that the drivers of rural underdevelopment are not created or significantly hindered by broadband quality. Low population density, logistical distance, educational attainment gaps and lower household wealth and the movement of young people to cities all combine to limit growth opportunities. 

Better broadband is not going to change that much, if at all.