BROADBAND ECOSYSTEM ELEMENTS IN TECHNO-ECONOMIC MODELLING AND ANALYSING OF BROADBAND ACCESS SOLUTIONS FOR RURAL AREAS

Encouraged by broadband development initiatives and strategies that aim at the reduction of the existing digital divide between rural and urban European areas by the year 2020, the current situation in the case study of Croatian rural broadband market is analysed, and the possibilities for further broadband Internet access implementation in rural areas are highlighted in the paper within the context of broadband ecosystem elements analysis. Furthermore, in order to address the exisiting digital divide problem, an extended techno-economic modelling process for rural broadband Internet access implementation analyses is proposed. The proposed additional part of model serves as an upgrade for the standard techno-economic models and allows a detailed analysis of the specificities of different rural areas, based on the available data. Finally, the efficiency of the proposed model's application when choosing the best business strategies for different fixed and mobile, wired and wireless broadband access solutions in rural areas is presented.