Changes in mobile broadband infrastructure in georgia during the covid-19 pandemic

Abstract

The COVID-19 pandemic brought the digital divide to center stage. This article investigates whether the crisis disrupted mobile broadband infrastructure, taking Georgia as a case study. We hypothesize that the pandemic could have slowed down ongoing infrastructure provision initiatives, as in other segments of the economy, or spurred them by bringing renewed attention and resources to overcoming the digital divide. We find that the per capita antenna gap between rural and micropolitan areas as compared to metropolitan has drastically reduced during the pandemic. Long-Term Evolution expansion was positively associated with the presence of vulnerable populations with variation across areas.