Rural broadband initiatives in the Netherlands as a training ground for neo-endogenous development

Rural broadband is assumed to be a solution to a variety of rural issues, yet the delivery of broadband to rural areas remains problematic. On the basis of a database of 75 rural broadband initiatives in the Netherlands and the information gathered by studying two initiatives in-depth for a number of years, the authors discuss how citizens instigate and run initiatives to improve internet connectivity. The authors present an eight-stage model that demonstrates that citizens, governments and market players have impact on the completion of each of these stages, highlighting the neo-endogenous character of rural broadband. In this neo-endogenous context both established market players and governments find it difficult to relinquish their usual approaches. Market players attempt to frustrate initiatives with rigid policies in order to prevent their share of the market being threatened. On paper governments stress the importance of local action, but in practice they come up with wavering or generic policies, neglecting local organizational differences and frustrating the progress. The broadband initiatives are in a constant learning curve and require perseverance as well as social, intellectual and financial capital. The current conditions under which the local initiatives operate endanger the realization of broadband in rural areas in the Netherlands.