Designing workable mobile broadband policies

The importance of accessing the Internet anywhere anytime has been high on the agenda of policy makers and businesses. Despite this awareness of the importance of mobile broadband access, there continue to be significant differences in mobile broadband adoption and uses among countries. Although many studies have examined the factors affecting broadband penetration rates, few studies thus far have focused on mobile broadband. Consequently, reasons for the gap on mobile broadband penetration rates among countries and potential remedies to address them remain muddy. This paper uses Qualitative Comparative Analysis (QCA) to systematically examine factors related to mobile broadband penetration. Policies and other economic and social factors usually interact with each other. OCA allows a systematic examination of the complexity of various combinations of policy and economic factors. This allows a deeper understanding of necessary and/or sufficient conditions for higher mobile broadband (high speed mobile Internet) penetration rates. The results reveal the complexity of the interaction of various conditions for mobile broadband penetration. The findings suggest that there are multiple paths toward high mobile broadband penetration, each depending on the context of institutional and non-institutional factors. An appropriate combination of spectrum policy, market access conditions, and supplementary policies to support access to disadvantaged regions and groups remains critical and has noticeable effects on sector outcomes

Drivers of fixed and mobile broadband infrastructure adoption and quality

The benefits of advanced information and communication services are increasingly dependent on the quality of the available connectivity. This paper examines the factors that influence the quality of fixed and mobile broadband access in OECD countries. Drawing on institutional economics, the study provides an integrated conceptual framework that allows analyzing the interaction of supply, demand, policy, and contextual factors. We explore the drivers of broadband access and quality and potential interdependencies between them. Our focus is on the role of public policy decisions as a determinant of quality and quality upgrades of fixed and mobile access networks. We also find evidence that regulatory interventions such as unbundling or open access provision do have a positive contribution in markets with limited competition. However, the findings also provide evidence that the best policy approach is dependent on the specific context of a country so that no single best practice model emerges from the observations

Getting Grandma Online: Are Tablets the Answer for Increasing Digital Inclusion for Older Adults in the US?

Using information and communication technologies (ICTs) can improve older adults\u27 quality of life. ICT use is associated with decreased feelings of loneliness and depression, along with increased feelings of independence and personal growth. However, limited access and low technological self-efficacy are key reasons why some groups, especially older adults, are excluded from being fully engaged in the digital world. In this study, we focus on older adults\u27 technological self-efficacy, which is related to their actual use of technology and the second level digital divide. Specifically, we examine: (a) how older adults decide to use a new technology, tablet computers; (b) how they conquer the barrier of technological self-efficacy through using tablets; and (c) the impacts of using this new technology in their lives. Twenty-one in-depth interviews were conducted with older adults residing in independent living communities in a medium-sized city in the Deep South region of the United States. Observational and enactive learning played important roles for older adults in using tablets. Seeing others use tablets, getting recommendations from family members, or having tablets given to them were the primary reasons they started to use tablet computers. The ease of use feature of tablets helped solve the problem of lacking technological self-efficacy. Using tablets helped increase a sense of connectedness. Tablet computers may be one way to increase digital inclusion among older adults

Measuring sustainable broadband adoption: An innovative approach to understanding broadband adoption and use

Efforts to promote sustainable broadband Internet adoption urge new attention to the classic diffusion of innovations paradigm. For this study, innovation attributes were reconceptualized following Social Cognitive Theory (SCT). In a sample of inner-city residents, the model accounted for 36% of the variance in intentions to adopt broadband technology and services, primarily from the SCT variables of expected outcomes and self-efficacy. Prior habitual use of the Internet was also a predictor. Price sensitivity was unrelated to adoption. Among demographic variables, only age had a significant (negative) relationship to broadband adoption after accounting for the SCT variables. Recommendations for the design and monitoring of sustainable broadband adoption interventions are made based on these findings

Erratum to: Guidelines for the use and interpretation of assays for monitoring autophagy (3rd edition) (Autophagy, 12, 1, 1-222, 10.1080/15548627.2015.1100356

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