Connecting rural areas to Broadband Internet: methodology and solutions for local governments

Paris, January 2003

Local governments are researching solutions to bring Broadband Internet to rural areas.

Several technical solutions are available, however they are not considered profitable by standard operators. While local companies are ready to enable the connection to broadband internet, they often face insurmountable technical and administrative difficulties.

It is in this context that the local government of a French region has ordered a study from ATDI and Merci, to provide solutions for connecting rural areas to Broadband Internet. The objective of this study is to define, with local companies, technical solutions to manage the administrative organisation of the project.

The study will show the modeling of the radio network deployment (including WiFi), and demonstrate the way in which cost evaluation of different solutions will contribute to the preparation of tenders and ease administrative procedures.