Government involvement and learning in business model experimentation: NGA deployment in rural areas in the Netherlands

The paper analyses the effects of governmental policy in the Netherlands on the formation and development of rural broadband projects. Rural internet access speeds are increasingly falling behind. As a result, the vast majority of
Dutch urban households use internet connections faster than those available to their counterparts in remote areas. As demand increases rapidly over time, the experienced deficit will grow rapidly without improvements to rural networks. This issue has received attention at different levels of government in the Netherlands, where regional and municipal actors have stimulated new broadband network deployment. In this context, the article explores the role
of the governmental policy in the rise of these projects and in stimulating new business model development. The paper studies 191 projects in the Netherlands and uses publicly available reports on government spending. The study than focuses on 28 projects in greater detail by using quantitate information gathered via a survey. The analysis shows that a large number of small projects use differing network construction methods and a variety of business models, allowing for some experimentation. In addition, a combination of financial support and actor network building is found to provide advantages to these projects.