Local Actors Build Broadband Infrastructure

This paper explores how local actors can play a role in bridging the rural broadband divide. It presents the bottom-up development of broadband infrastructure in the rural region of ‘Sogn & Fjordane’, Norway. To bridge the broadband divide individuals, businesses and public sector in several rural communities have joined forces and have taken an initiative to develop and operate local broadband infrastructure. Each initiative faces a different set of challenges depending on the local context. The paper open up the ‘black box’ of the innovative process to get a better understanding of the alternative process needed to develop broadband infrastructure in rural settings when the market forces does not apply. Two initiatives will be used to illustrate how the communities have assembled rural broadband assess using available knowledge and relational resources and infrastructure to achieve the goal, which is contrary to the traditional roll out of telecom infrastructure.