This paper examines challenges to evidence-based decision-making in the design and implementation of rural broadband investment programs. Our focus is on Canada, and the apparent need for further intra-rural broadband research and better data and mapping for informing public investment decisions, but similar challenges are evident in the international literature. Based on proprietary telecommunication provider datasets, the Canadian Radio-television and Telecommunication Commission (CRTC) estimates that broadband services with advertised speeds that meet its basic universal service targets (50 Mbps download and 10 Mbps upload) are available to 87.4 percent of households in Canada. In rural areas however, services that meet CRTC’s speed targets are available to 45.6 percent of households. Moreover, effective speeds and service quality levels that suppliers deliver and users experience tend to fall well below the government’s aspirational targets. In response to demand for better broadband, a variety of initiatives are directing public investment to the deployment of regional and rural broadband networks, which are typically owned and operated by private companies. There remains a serious lack of relevant data and its effective use in creating rural broadband strategies and managing public investment projects. Evidence from the literature suggest that this affects the degree and quality of geo-spatial and econometric analysis that results in a limited empirical basis to allocate scarce public investments, aggregate demand of consumers/communities, and assess the outcomes of rural broadband initiatives ex post. This paper provides a historical overview of rural broadband development in Canada and questions if the body of knowledge to inform public investment initiatives has grown sufficiently to ensure their effectiveness and sustainability. With a regional case from southwestern Ontario, Canada, we discuss the findings of the literature review, characterize the broadband data challenge, and discuss the importance of proprietary provider data cross-referenced with Internet user experience data.

本文探讨了在农村宽带投资计划的设计和实施中基于证据的决策面临的挑战。我们的重点是加拿大，显然需要进一步的农村内部宽带研究以及更好的数据和地图来告知公共投资决策，但国际文献中也面临类似的挑战。根据专有的电信提供商数据集，加拿大广播电视和电信委员会（CRTC）估计，加拿大87.4％的家庭可以使用达到其基本通用服务目标（50 Mbps下载和10 Mbps上传）的广告速度的宽带服务。 。但是在农村地区，有45.6％的家庭可以使用达到CRTC速度目标的服务。此外，供应商提供的有效速度和服务质量水平以及用户体验往往远低于政府的理想目标。为响应对更好宽带的需求，各种举措将公共投资引导到区域和农村宽带网络的部署上，这些网络通常由私人公司拥有和运营。仍然严重缺乏相关数据及其在制定农村宽带战略和管理公共投资项目中的有效利用。来自文献的证据表明，这影响了地理空间和计量经济分析的程度和质量，导致有限的经验基础来分配稀缺的公共投资，消费者/社区的总需求以及事后评估农村宽带计划的成果。本文提供了加拿大农村宽带发展的历史概述，并质疑了为公共投资计划提供信息的知识体系是否已经增长到足以确保其有效性和可持续性的程度。以加拿大西南部安大略省的一个地区案例为例，我们讨论了文献综述的结果，描述了宽带数据挑战的特征，并讨论了将专有提供商数据与Internet用户体验数据进行交叉引用的重要性。