Public Private Partnerships as an Inter-Organizational Initiative for the Diffusion of Broadband Technologies in Europe

Broadband access plays a major role for the economic growth and for the social and cultural development of urban and rural areas. Market failure within the broadband sector emerges often in regions with a low density of population and weak economic conditions. A provision of broadband infrastructure and services in such areas is not attractive to private investments because of a low or even negative expected rate on return. In case of market failure, Public Private Partnerships (PPPs) can be a powerful tool to encourage the deployment of information and communication technologies, such as broadband services. A comparative case study analysis from ‘broadband-PPPs’ from different countries depict that the organizational and financial funding models differ from project to project. This contribution aims to encourage the discussion about different modes of funding and organizational models of collaborations among public and private partners in the broadband sector. For this reason, organizational and financing structures of PPP projects will be analyzed by six PPP case studies from the broadband sector from Sweden, Great Britain, and France.