Assigning capacity and prices for telecommunication services to increase possibilities of investment in rural networks

Demand for Internet has a high variable daily pattern; as a result, service providers try to install enough capacity to support demand in peak periods. In general, this behaviour increases investment cost and final prices. Regions with low population densities and low income cannot afford the established prices, so their Internet use is less frequent or non-existent. In this paper, we present an integrated model that combines a traffic characterization, a schematic demand and price relationship, and two capacity optimization algorithms for the delivery of a long term rural Internet deployment strategy. The proposed model is useful to recommend policies for pricing and capacity which increase the rate of return of investment, this assertion is verified comparing against deployment strategies reported in literature. Higher rates of return counteract low levels of financial investment, one of the main obstacles for the universal access to Internet.