The effects of rural telecommunications self-development projects on local adoption of new technologies

In the mid-1990s, rural US communities began investing in local telecommunications self-development projects in anticipation of market and policy failure to provide advanced telecommunications services. This study examines whether self-development projects were effective in encouraging local adoption of new telecommunications services by businesses and residents as compared to control communities. Results show that the projects had some effect. However, the study also found that market forces provided similar services in the control communities more quickly than anticipated, and after four years, differences in adoption between project and control communities were generally not significant. This raises questions about whether investments in such projects are justified. Residents of project communities did, however, have significantly more positive attitudes towards new technologies.