INTRODUCTION AND METHODOLOGY

INTRODUCTION AND METHODOLOGY

The aim of the White paper is to perform a high-level assessment of the project “Wi-Fi covering the Republic of Macedonia” (hereinafter Wi-Fi Kiosk Project) under the auspices of which 680 remote and rural locations across the country have received free-of-charge connectivity through Wi-Fi Internet access kiosks. In the process of carrying out the assessment, the authors have found it important to present a number of recommendations on how the Government could capitalize on the project to improve existing and / or design future similar interventions.

No impact assessments or evaluations of the Wi-Fi Kiosk Project have been performed to date, thus this current White Paper is the first attempt to evaluate the project. It should be noted that the detailed project impact assessment and considerations on how to make the recommendations outlined in the White Paper operational are not in the scope of this current assignment; they can be elaborated in the future at the request of the Government of FYR Macedonia.

The methodology used to assess the Wi-Fi Kiosk Project presents a mixture of qualitative and quantitative research techniques encompassing desk research, field work, focused interviews, and a survey. The desk research was carried out in the English and Macedonian languages in October-December, 2013: the authors have studied the project documentation provided by MIOA, Ministry of Education and Science (MoES), Wi-Fi kiosk operators, broadband operators as well as publicly available online materials. The field work was carried out on October 7-9th, 2013 and November 27-29th, 2013, and included kiosk site visits to five villages in Staro Nagoričane, Aerodrom, and Ohrid municipalities. A series of focused interviews with the relevant stakeholders from the government, private sector, and civil society were conducted in November-December 2013. The research team has conducted interviews by e-mail, video conferences, and during in-person meetings. The government stakeholders included representatives of MIOA, MoES, and Agency for Electronic Communications (AEC). The private sector was represented by Wi-Fi kiosk backbone network operator, Wi-Fi kiosk operators, and other fixed and mobile Internet operators operating on the territory of FYR Macedonia. The civil society interviewees comprised USAID representatives and World Bank specialists from Social Development, Development Economics, and Education sectors. Finally, an opinion survey was designed and distributed in the period of December 24, 2013 – February 4, 2014 in 66 villages which roughly represent 10% of the total number of localities where Wi-Fi kiosks have been installed. The survey was compiled with an aim to garner personal feedback on the experiences of the kiosk use from the sample of end-users who are likely to be using kiosks to satisfy their connectivity needs in lieu of other options. Through a competitive bidding procedure a Skopje-based polling company Publik CTS was selected to collect and process the survey data. The survey methodology, composition of the sample, and the survey itself can be found in Annex D, the survey findings are featured in Annex G.

The paper starts off by giving an overview of the state of telecom development in rural FYR Macedonia from the standpoint of affordability and availability of the commercial broadband² Internet access services for the less advantaged groups of the population. The next section describes the Wi-Fi Kiosk Project outlining its scope, aim, and implementation process while bringing forward publics’ experiences with respect to the Wi-Fi kiosk use. This section also examines technical parameters related to the Internet usage and demonstrates the problematic of the kiosk maintenance in the remote and rural areas. Section 5 references specific policy and regulatory measures designed by different government stakeholders with a goal to analyse the approach which has been chosen to ensure availability of the fixed and (or) mobile broadband Internet in the rural areas of the country. The White Paper concludes with a set of observations and recommendations aiming to address the sustainability of the results achieved by the Wi-Fi Kiosk Project and to offer next steps to increase rural connectivity in FYR Macedonia.

1. AFFORDABILITY AND AVAILABILITY OF COMMERCIAL BROADBAND INTERNET ACCESS SERVICES IN RURAL AREAS OF FORMER YUGOSLAV REPUBLIC OF MACEDONIA

Global experience has demonstrated that private investors alone are not capable of providing adequate broadband coverage to all citizens or users, thus leaving a significant part of the population unconnected and the digital divide growing. Socioeconomic inequalities (e.g. in terms of income) and (or) existence of the geographically remote and/or isolated territories translate into inadequately high connection costs, which present the main obstacle to the broadband infrastructure rollout (or) extension by the private sector.

Depending on the peculiarities of the region or country, one or the other reason may have a bigger impact on the development of the digital divide. In the case of FYR Macedonia, both territorial and socioeconomic circumstances are likely to be impacting the development of broadband connectivity. The below two sections will address these circumstances, as they are of particular importance in the context of the Wi-Fi Kiosk Project, specifically initiated to narrow the digital divide.