A Method for Validation of Socio-Economic Impact from Connectivity Solutions in Rural Communities

Validating the impact from enhanced connectivity solutions has frequently been related to technological dimensions such as speed, capacity, and coverage. Moreover, research efforts on adoption of digital technologies have traditionally been dedicated to communities in cities and urban areas. Lately, more attention has been paid to socio-economic and environmental dimensions to secure that new digital innovations introduced for the market are business and community friendly as well as environmentally sustainable. Our hypothesis is that connectivity solutions enhanced by 5G and IoT will have large impact on rural communities and industries prevalent in rural areas. The backdrop is that agricultural and forest-based businesses are typically found in rural areas and have just started their digitalization journeys, meaning many benefits are still left uncaptured. This paper suggests a methodology for validating societal and economic impact of new connectivity solutions in rural areas, building upon a macro and micro level analysis. The former assesses effects from increased broadband coverage on demographical outcomes on a regional/municipality level, whereas the latter assesses the effects on individual stakeholders within respective rural areas, focusing on concrete deployment of use cases. The solutions are designed based on elicited user needs and requirements, and our agile approach helps us transferring these insights into the design of the solutions that later will be tested in small- and large-scale trials. Preliminary findings indicate a significant relationship between increased broadband connectivity and social outcomes on a regional level and display an array of expected impact indicators to be captured by stakeholders on a use case level. The proposed methodology offers novel insights into the steps of validating the impact of next generation digital technologies in rural areas. It complements existing work on the validation of smart connectivity solutions and that traditionally has been given to cities and urban areas.