Analyzing and Developing Rural Broadband Policy Solutions for Alberta

The Covid-19 pandemic has underscored the importance of broadband and produced a series of national reports and policy recommendations on how to close connectivity gaps. While these reports provide broad policy prescriptions, developing solutions for individual rural communities requires consideration of local contexts. This project aims to (1) synthesize recent policy recommendations and (2) review older Alberta-specific community based broadband preparedness reports, (2) identify suitable comparators from the rest of Canada and the United States, and (3) systematically review the current landscape of broadband Alberta local broadband projects to develop tailor policy recommendations for improving broadband in Alberta. In turn the recommendations as well as the method employed (systematic grey literature searching) may be generalizable for other regions.

Faculty Supervisor:

Michael McNally

Student:

Partner:

Rural Development Network

Discipline:

Sociology

Sector:

Information and Communications Technology; Public Service, Policy, and Governance

University:

University of Alberta

Program: