Rural Broadband: Telecom Haves, Have Nots and Will Nots

• In Event: Beyond Non-Use: Infrastructuralism and Interruption

Abstract

This paper offers up a case study from Canada of the technified society focusing on the rural "will nots" who live in, on the margins of, or outside ultra-high speed internet infrastructure. Using data from the R2B2Project.ca we tour evolving relations between telecom access and use in our region. How do broadband "haves" define "have nots" without "will nots"? Is the reverse relation of understanding "will nots" of possible relevance to those "have nots" who want to be connected? What evidence is there that broadband non-users (will-nots and have nots) are improving "smart" (digital development) initiatives in their communities? Telecom Service Providers (TSPs) use population/premises passed metrics, why is it relevant to discuss the "will nots" as well as the "haves/have nots" in infrastructure investment programs? This presentation will wrap up by opening up the dichotomies of rural broadband infrastructure as a key socio-economic, political and geo-spatial dilemma of our times.

Author

• Helen Hambly, University of Guelph