Leveraging Mining Demand for Internet and Telecommunications Infrastructure for Broad Economic Development: Models, Opportunities and Challenges

Abstract

Access to broadband infrastructure is fundamental to lift developing countries out of poverty and an estimated 1.1 billion households are still unconnected to the Internet. Mining companies are increasingly installing fiber optic networks along their grids, railroad tracks and pipelines to improve monitoring of their infrastructure and ensure greater reliability and safety. If mining-related Internet and Telecommunications (ICT) investments are designed to contribute to the development of public infrastructure, the incremental capital cost of building additional ICT capacity to extend the networks to nearby communities will generally be lower than the cost of building a new network from scratch; and the economic and social spillover effects can extend far beyond the mine. Several barriers hindering shared use of mining – related ICT infrastructure could be levied by better planning and coordination between mines, telecommunications companies and the government as well as more forward- looking regulations governing the ICT sector