Broadband adoption in regional and urban households

Abstract

Broadband offers key advantages as a communication infrastructure, including efficiency and cost savings which can stimulate productivity, innovation, and ultimately economic growth and social well-being. This paper presents a comparative study on the adoption of broadband in urban and regional areas. It proposes a model concerning broadband adoption which we validate with data collected using a computer-aided telephone survey. We find that relative advantage, utility outcomes, and facilitating conditions play a crucial role in explaining the broadband adoption behavior of both urban and regional household users. In a dynamic environment where technologies are changing quickly, our findings about broadband adoption drivers are useful to stakeholders such as internet service providers, regulators, broadband application developers for encouraging further broadband and application adoption and developments in communication space in both regional and urban areas.