IDEAS home Printed from https://ideas.repec.org/a/eee/tefoso/v207y2024ics0040162524003986.html
   My bibliography  Save this article

A decision support scheme for solving the mobile coverage gap in rural areas in developing countries – Demonstrated with a case in Indonesia

Author

Listed:
  • Harahap, Vannesya
  • Kamp, Linda M.
  • Ubacht, Jolien

Abstract

As a primary means of communication, the role of mobile telecommunications networks is important for a developing country's economic and social development. However, especially rural areas in low-income countries still lack mobile coverage. In the academic literature, only segmented solution strategies for this mobile coverage problem in rural areas are proposed. These are either technological, regulatory, or organizational solutions, whereas solving the mobile coverage gap requires an integrated approach to develop arrangements for mobile network rollout in rural areas. This paper presents a comprehensive overview of the causes of the lack of mobile coverage, the available solutions, and how they can be combined. Based on this overview, the paper proposes a decision support scheme for selecting a suitable arrangement for solving the mobile coverage gap. In this decision support scheme, the technical, organizational, and regulatory solutions are combined to develop a set of arrangements that match the local key causes of the lack of mobile coverage and that fit with the local context. In the last phase of the decision support scheme, the relevant stakeholders are involved in selecting the most suitable arrangement. We demonstrate the decision support scheme by applying it to the case of an unserved rural village in Indonesia, Unipa on the island of Papua, to show how it can guide a developing country to initiate the process of developing a solution for mobile coverage problems in rural areas.

Suggested Citation

  • Harahap, Vannesya & Kamp, Linda M. & Ubacht, Jolien, 2024. "A decision support scheme for solving the mobile coverage gap in rural areas in developing countries – Demonstrated with a case in Indonesia," Technological Forecasting and Social Change, Elsevier, vol. 207(C).
    • Handle: RePEc:eee:tefoso:v:207:y:2024:i:c:s0040162524003986
    DOI: 10.1016/j.techfore.2024.123600
    as

    Download full text from publisher

    File URL: http://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S0040162524003986
    Download Restriction: Full text for ScienceDirect subscribers only
    File URL: https://libkey.io/10.1016/j.techfore.2024.123600?utm_source=ideas
    LibKey link: if access is restricted and if your library uses this service, LibKey will redirect you to where you can use your library subscription to access this item
    ---><---

    As the access to this document is restricted, you may want to search for a different version of it.

    References listed on IDEAS

    as
    1. Cricelli, Livio & Grimaldi, Michele & Ghiron, Nathan Levialdi, 2011. "The competition among mobile network operators in the telecommunication supply chain," International Journal of Production Economics, Elsevier, vol. 131(1), pages 22-29, May.
    2. Loo, Becky P.Y. & Ngan, Y.L., 2012. "Developing mobile telecommunications to narrow digital divide in developing countries? Some lessons from China," Telecommunications Policy, Elsevier, vol. 36(10), pages 888-900.
    3. Edquist, Harald & Goodridge, Peter & Haskel, Jonathan & Li, Xuan & Lindquist, Edward, 2018. "How important are mobile broadband networks for the global economic development?," Information Economics and Policy, Elsevier, vol. 45(C), pages 16-29.
    4. Salemink, Koen & Strijker, Dirk, 2018. "The participation society and its inability to correct the failure of market players to deliver adequate service levels in rural areas," Telecommunications Policy, Elsevier, vol. 42(9), pages 757-765.
    5. Sridhar, Varadharajan & Prasad, Rohit, 2011. "Towards a new policy framework for spectrum management in India," Telecommunications Policy, Elsevier, vol. 35(2), pages 172-184, March.
    6. Wright, David, 1995. "Reaching out to remote and rural areas: Mobile satellite services and the role of Inmarsat," Telecommunications Policy, Elsevier, vol. 19(2), pages 105-116, March.
    7. Chiha, Asma & Van der Wee, Marlies & Colle, Didier & Verbrugge, Sofie, 2020. "Techno-economic viability of integrating satellite communication in 4G networks to bridge the broadband digital divide," Telecommunications Policy, Elsevier, vol. 44(3).
    Full references (including those not matched with items on IDEAS)

    Most related items

    These are the items that most often cite the same works as this one and are cited by the same works as this one.
    1. Ferrandis, Jesús & Ramos, Sergio & Feijóo, Claudio, 2021. "An assessment of estimation models and investment gaps for the deployment of high-speed broadband networks in NUTS3 regions to meet the objectives of the European Gigabit Society," Telecommunications Policy, Elsevier, vol. 45(7).
    2. Borice Augustin Ngounou & Honoré Tekam Oumbe & Bruno Emmanuel Ongo Nkoa & Edmond Noubissi Domguia, 2024. "Inclusive growth in the face of increasing urbanization: What experience for African countries?," Review of Development Economics, Wiley Blackwell, vol. 28(1), pages 34-70, February.
    3. Lee, Hyeongjik & Jeong, Seonkoo & Lee, Kwanghee, 2023. "The South Korean case of deploying rural broadband via fiber networks by implementing universal service obligation and public-private partnership based project," Telecommunications Policy, Elsevier, vol. 47(3).
    4. Simona Stojanova & Nina Cvar & Jurij Verhovnik & Nataša Božić & Jure Trilar & Andrej Kos & Emilija Stojmenova Duh, 2022. "Rural Digital Innovation Hubs as a Paradigm for Sustainable Business Models in Europe’s Rural Areas," Sustainability, MDPI, vol. 14(21), pages 1-20, November.
    5. Jun Wen & Hadi Hussain & Renai Jiang & Junaid Waheed, 2023. "Overcoming the Digital Divide With ICT Diffusion: Multivariate and Spatial Analysis at China’s Provincial Level," SAGE Open, , vol. 13(1), pages 21582440231, March.
    6. Oughton, Edward J. & Amaglobeli, David & Moszoro, Marian, 2023. "What would it cost to connect the unconnected? Estimating global universal broadband infrastructure investment," Telecommunications Policy, Elsevier, vol. 47(10).
    7. Edquist, Harald, 2022. "The economic impact of mobile broadband speed," Telecommunications Policy, Elsevier, vol. 46(5).
    8. Olga Lavrinenko & Svetlana Ignatjeva & Alina Betlej & Alina Danileviča & Vladimir Menshikov & Oleg Rybalkin, 2022. "Mobile internet in the EU: problems and perspectives," Entrepreneurship and Sustainability Issues, VsI Entrepreneurship and Sustainability Center, vol. 9(3), pages 369-383, March.
    9. Briglauer, Wolfgang & Krämer, Jan & Palan, Nicole, 2024. "Socioeconomic benefits of high-speed broadband availability and service adoption: A survey," Telecommunications Policy, Elsevier, vol. 48(7).
    10. Katz, Raul & Emara, Noha, 2022. "The Economic Impact of Telecommunications in Egypt," MPRA Paper 112467, University Library of Munich, Germany.
    11. Surapree Maolikul & Thira Chavarnakul & Somchai Kiatgamolchai, 2019. "Market Opportunity Analysis in Thailand: Case of Individual Power Sources by Thermoelectric-Generator Technology for Portable Electronics," International Journal of Innovation and Technology Management (IJITM), World Scientific Publishing Co. Pte. Ltd., vol. 16(03), pages 1-24, May.
    12. Becky P. Y. Loo & Bo Wang, 2018. "Factors associated with home-based e-working and e-shopping in Nanjing, China," Transportation, Springer, vol. 45(2), pages 365-384, March.
    13. Liu, Chun & Wang, Lian, 2021. "Who is left behind? Exploring the characteristics of China's broadband non-adopting families," Telecommunications Policy, Elsevier, vol. 45(9).
    14. Laetitia Chaix & Dominique Torre, 2015. "The Dual Role of Mobile Payment in Developing Countries," GREDEG Working Papers 2015-01, Groupe de REcherche en Droit, Economie, Gestion (GREDEG CNRS), Université Côte d'Azur, France.
    15. del Portillo, Inigo & Eiskowitz, Skylar & Crawley, Edward F. & Cameron, Bruce G., 2021. "Connecting the other half: Exploring options for the 50% of the population unconnected to the internet," Telecommunications Policy, Elsevier, vol. 45(3).
    16. Bardey, David & Aristizábal, Danilo & Gómez, José Santiago & Sáenz, Bibiana, 2022. "Concentration of the mobile telecommunications markets and countries’ competitiveness," Telecommunications Policy, Elsevier, vol. 46(1).
    17. Hilbert, Martin, 2016. "The bad news is that the digital access divide is here to stay: Domestically installed bandwidths among 172 countries for 1986–2014," Telecommunications Policy, Elsevier, vol. 40(6), pages 567-581.
    18. Kumar, Ronald Ravinesh & Stauvermann, Peter Josef & Samitas, Aristeidis, 2016. "The effects of ICT⁎ on output per worker: A study of the Chinese economy," Telecommunications Policy, Elsevier, vol. 40(2), pages 102-115.
    19. Liz Price & Jane Deville & Fiona Ashmore, 2021. "A guide to developing a rural digital hub," Local Economy, London South Bank University, vol. 36(7-8), pages 683-694, November.
    20. Kangjuan Lv & Jiaqi Li & Ye Zhao, 2023. "Can Internet Construction Promote Urban Green Development? A Quasi-Natural Experiment from the “Broadband China”," IJERPH, MDPI, vol. 20(6), pages 1-21, March.

    Corrections

    All material on this site has been provided by the respective publishers and authors. You can help correct errors and omissions. When requesting a correction, please mention this item's handle: RePEc:eee:tefoso:v:207:y:2024:i:c:s0040162524003986. See general information about how to correct material in RePEc.

    If you have authored this item and are not yet registered with RePEc, we encourage you to do it here. This allows to link your profile to this item. It also allows you to accept potential citations to this item that we are uncertain about.

    If CitEc recognized a bibliographic reference but did not link an item in RePEc to it, you can help with this form .

    If you know of missing items citing this one, you can help us creating those links by adding the relevant references in the same way as above, for each refering item. If you are a registered author of this item, you may also want to check the "citations" tab in your RePEc Author Service profile, as there may be some citations waiting for confirmation.

    For technical questions regarding this item, or to correct its authors, title, abstract, bibliographic or download information, contact: Catherine Liu (email available below). General contact details of provider: http://www.sciencedirect.com/science/journal/00401625 .

    Please note that corrections may take a couple of weeks to filter through the various RePEc services.

    IDEAS is a RePEc service. RePEc uses bibliographic data supplied by the respective publishers.