The Multi-Technology Footprint of the National Broadband Network in Australia: Exploring the Urban-Regional Divide and Socio-spatial Patterns for Inequality

Tooran Alizadeh, Edward Helderop, Tony H. Grubesic and Richard Ferrers

International Regional Science Review, 2024, vol. 47, issue 2, 159-181

Abstract: The recent global pandemic renewed the importance of telecommunication infrastructure, as many COVID responses (e.g., working from home, home-schooling, e-commerce) were challenged by the inequity of access to broadband services and its underlying network. This paper examines the geospatial footprint of the National Broadband Network (NBN) in relation to the demographics of Australia’s cities and regions. Through data made available by the NBN, which describes the technologies used in its multi-technology mix platform, and published demographic data available via the Australian Bureau of Statistics (ABS), we explore the equity of access to broadband technologies across the nation. The results show a persistent urban-regional divide in the NBN. The paper also offers a brief assessment of the complex and contradictory ways policy responses attempt to mitigate the digital divide, including updates to the national infrastructure project plans.

Keywords: telecommunication; broadband; national broadband network; Australia; equity; urban-regional divide (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Date: 2024
References: View references in EconPapers View complete reference list from CitEc
Citations:

Downloads: (external link)
https://journals.sagepub.com/doi/10.1177/01600176231168025 (text/html)

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:sae:inrsre:v:47:y:2024:i:2:p:159-181

DOI: 10.1177/01600176231168025

Access Statistics for this article

More articles in International Regional Science Review
Bibliographic data for series maintained by SAGE Publications ().