A-BARD Recommendations for the future

Depending on the definition of what a rural area is, it can be stated that 25 -40% of the European population still lives outside major cities and towns. New technologies and infrastructures for advanced communications are being introduced in towns, cities, and industrial areas and in certain more fortunate rural areas. All rural areas need comparable information technology, telecommunications and broadcasting infrastructures to urban centres if they are to compete for jobs and develop a more balanced economic activity with diversity of employment.

The real danger is that rural areas will increasingly lag behind urban areas. If corrective steps are not taken, enabling ICT systems will tend to concentrate in cities and core regions and opportunities for rural revitalisation through the use of these technologies will continue at a slow pace.

ICT deployment can reduce the isolation of rural areas. ICT facilitates communication and the economic constraints associated with geographical isolation can become less significant. The cycle of economic decline in many rural areas can be broken. Opportunities for diversification of employment can revitalise economic activity and lead to more stable and balanced communities, more demand for and better health services, education facilities, social services and more varied cultural activities.

ICT deployment will impact on all aspects of rural life, whether in farming, food processing, tourism, the delivery of "quality of life" services, tourism. local government etc. Not all of these impacts will be of benefit to rural areas, nevertheless the opportunities outweigh the threats. This is a core challenge in the A-BARD project: how to recognise, manage and optimise the power of broadband ICT to drive change for the betterment of Europe's rural areas.

The A-BARD recommendations are structured into four categories:

1. Policy aspects
2. Strategic actions
3. Standalone initiatives
4. Further research & Innovation

These need to balance top-down and bottom-up approaches, and are summarised as follows:

1. Define an ambitious European eRural Strategy as an integral part of Sustainable Rural Development Policy
• Allocate public funding where there is “market failure”
• In i2010 and FP7, include specific infrastructure, ICT use and RTD initiatives for rural areas
2. Stimulate business and technical competition in the Rural Broadband Market
• Every user should have a choice of 2 or more broadband access options
• Stimulate Public Sector Demand aggregation in rural and remote areas
3. Develop sustainable Connected Rural eCommunities to stimulate demand and broadband take up
• Enhance Regional Leadership and Local Champions
• Promote and support Awareness (“know what”) and Training (“know how”)
4. Provide services and content that rural users want (“Killer Applications”).
• Local content
• Entertainment
• As well as eBusiness, eLearning, eHealth, eGovernment