EconPapers    
Economics at your fingertips  
 

Analysis of the WiFi4EU initiative as a potential instrument to correct digital divide in rural areas in the EU

Julio Navío-Marco, Raquel Pérez-Leal and Luis Manuel Ruiz-Gómez

30th European Regional ITS Conference, Helsinki 2019 from International Telecommunications Society (ITS)

Abstract: With the WiFi4EU initiative, the European Commission intends to reinforce local wireless Internet connectivity free of charge and without discriminatory conditions in the EU. This paper aims to analyse if this policy measure achieves its goals: to contribute towards digital inclusion and to improve coverage in disadvantaged areas. By analysing the results of the first call, we can conclude that WiFi4EU can be a good tool for promoting the necessary connectivity in local/rural environments of the European Union, but there is room for improvement to increase the positive impact of the initiative. The article proposes useful recommendations for municipalities and policymakers, and suggests improvements for the award procedure.

Keywords: WiFi4EU; ICT regulation; Gigabit Society; Rural connectivity; digital divide (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Date: 2019
New Economics Papers: this item is included in nep-ict
References: View references in EconPapers View complete reference list from CitEc
Citations:

Downloads: (external link)
https://www.econstor.eu/bitstream/10419/205200/1/Navio-Marco-et-al.pdf (application/pdf)

Related works:
This item may be available elsewhere in EconPapers: Search for items with the same title.

Export reference: BibTeX RIS (EndNote, ProCite, RefMan) HTML/Text

Persistent link: https://EconPapers.repec.org/RePEc:zbw:itse19:205200

Access Statistics for this paper

More papers in 30th European Regional ITS Conference, Helsinki 2019 from International Telecommunications Society (ITS)
Bibliographic data for series maintained by ZBW - Leibniz Information Centre for Economics ().

 
Page updated 2025-03-20
Handle: RePEc:zbw:itse19:205200