Do Information Communication Technologies Promote Rural Economic Development?

Abstract

Current literature focuses upon the importance of deploying advanced telecommunications in rural communities to achieve various objectives, including economic development. Once advanced information communication technologies (ICT) are present, this literature argues that communities will be better prepared to participate fully in the “information economy” and attract or engender new business development. Although access to the superhighway is nearly ubiquitous today in the United States, few rural areas have deployed ICT programs over a number of years, and we know little about the impact of these programs on economic development. In this paper, we examine five cases in which ICT have been deployed in rural areas, but we find that regardless of the motive for introducing technologically advanced communications systems, there is little evidence that telecommunications lead to economic growth or that businesses in the communities are using ICT extensively. Instead, the paper concludes that the physical deployment of the hardware is not sufficient to achieve success.

Keywords:

• community economic development
• telecommunications
• information economy