Examining broadband adoption factors: an empirical analysis between countries

Purpose – The purpose of this paper is to explore influential factors of global broadband adoption by examining adoption factors – such as platform competition, information and communication technology (ICT) use, content, broadband speed, income, population density, education, price, and local loop unbundling (LLU). Design/methodology/approach – The paper examines influential factors of global broadband adoption; it also employs regression analysis and one-way ANOVA (Analysis of Variance). A total of 110 observations were employed for multiple regression analysis and 159 observations were used for one-way ANOVA. Findings – The findings in the paper show that platform competition, LLU, broadband speed, information and communication technology use, and content contribute to global broadband adoption. The impacts of platform competition are strong when market share of dominant technology and non-dominant technology is similar. Originality/value – The main findings of this paper suggest policy and strategy implications to policy-makers and broadband service providers. This is unsponsored research that adds to the growing scholarship addressing broadband deployment factors on a comparative, international level.