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dc.contributor.authorWilliams, Fiona*
dc.contributor.authorPhilip, Lorna*
dc.contributor.authorFarrington, John*
dc.contributor.authorFairhurst, Gorry*
dc.date.accessioned2017-06-08T09:55:47Z
dc.date.available2017-06-08T09:55:47Z
dc.date.issued2016-09-30
dc.identifier.citationWilliams, F., Philip, L., Fairhurst, G., & Farrington, J. (2016). ‘Digital by Default’ and ‘the hard to reach’: exploring solutions to digital exclusion in remote rural areas. Local Economy, 31(7), 757-777.en
dc.identifier.issn0269-0942
dc.identifier.doi10.1177/0269094216670938
dc.identifier.urihttp://hdl.handle.net/10034/620528
dc.descriptionWilliams, F., Philip, L., Fairhurst, G., & Farrington, J. (2016). ‘Digital by Default’ and ‘the hard to reach’: exploring solutions to digital exclusion in remote rural areas. Local Economy, 31(7), 757-777. DOI: 10.1177/0269094216670938. Copyright © 2016 SAGE. Reprinted by permission of SAGE Publications.
dc.description.abstractIn the UK, the geography of Information and Communication Technology (ICT) infrastructure required for Internet connectivity is such that high speed broadband and mobile phone networks are generally less available in rural areas compared with urban areas or, in other words, as remoteness and population sparsity increase so too does the likelihood of an area having no or very poor broadband connectivity. Against a policy backdrop of UK Government efforts to bring forward network infrastructure upgrades and to improve the accessibility of broadband services in locations where there is a weak commercial investment case, this paper considers the options for the ‘final few’ in the prevailing ‘Digital by Default’ public services context. The paper outlines the Rural Public Access WiFi Services project, a study focused upon enabling Internet connectivity for commercially ‘hard to reach’ rural areas in the UK. The Rural Public Access WiFi Services concept and the experiment are introduced before findings from a pilot deployment of a broadband service to households in a remote rural area, who may be classified as ‘digitally excluded’, are presented. The paper then reflects on our field experiment and the potential of the Rural Public Access WiFi Services model as a solution to overcoming some of the digital participation barriers manifest in the urban–rural divide. Early indications show that the Rural Public Access WiFi Services model has the potential to encourage participation in the Digital Economy and could aid the UK Government’s Digital by Default agenda, although adoption of the model is not without its challenges.
dc.language.isoenen
dc.publisherSAGE Publicationsen
dc.relation.urlhttp://journals.sagepub.com/doi/abs/10.1177/0269094216670938en
dc.rights.urihttp://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/en
dc.subjectRural broadband infrastructureen
dc.subjectFinal fewen
dc.subjectDigital by Defaulten
dc.subjectHard to reachen
dc.title'Digital by Default' and the 'hard to reach': Exploring solutions to digital exclusion in remote rural areasen
dc.typeArticleen
dc.identifier.eissn1470-9325
dc.contributor.departmentUniversity of Chester; University of Aberdeenen
dc.identifier.journalLocal Economyen
or.grant.openaccessYesen
rioxxterms.funderRCUK Digital Economy programme to the dot.rural Digital Economy Huben
rioxxterms.identifier.projectRCUK Digital Economy programme to the dot.rural Digital Economy Hub: EP/G066051/1en
rioxxterms.versionVoRen
rioxxterms.versionofrecordhttps://doi.org/10.1177/0269094216670938
rioxxterms.licenseref.startdate2016-09-30
html.description.abstractIn the UK, the geography of Information and Communication Technology (ICT) infrastructure required for Internet connectivity is such that high speed broadband and mobile phone networks are generally less available in rural areas compared with urban areas or, in other words, as remoteness and population sparsity increase so too does the likelihood of an area having no or very poor broadband connectivity. Against a policy backdrop of UK Government efforts to bring forward network infrastructure upgrades and to improve the accessibility of broadband services in locations where there is a weak commercial investment case, this paper considers the options for the ‘final few’ in the prevailing ‘Digital by Default’ public services context. The paper outlines the Rural Public Access WiFi Services project, a study focused upon enabling Internet connectivity for commercially ‘hard to reach’ rural areas in the UK. The Rural Public Access WiFi Services concept and the experiment are introduced before findings from a pilot deployment of a broadband service to households in a remote rural area, who may be classified as ‘digitally excluded’, are presented. The paper then reflects on our field experiment and the potential of the Rural Public Access WiFi Services model as a solution to overcoming some of the digital participation barriers manifest in the urban–rural divide. Early indications show that the Rural Public Access WiFi Services model has the potential to encourage participation in the Digital Economy and could aid the UK Government’s Digital by Default agenda, although adoption of the model is not without its challenges.
rioxxterms.publicationdate2016-09-30
dc.dateAccepted2016-09-30


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