UN Report States That Internet Access Could Improve Rural Living

The recent World Social Report from the UN suggests that better internet access could do more to improve rural living than migration to urban areas. With about 3.4 billion people living rurally across the planet, how is the internet capable of making life better for them and what differences can we already see thanks to widespread internet access?

Source: Pixabay

More Job Opportunities

Internet services have evolved. The market is crowded with many internet providers offering different packages and network solutions for individuals and organizations, paving the way to generate more job opportunities for everyone. 

People have continuous data access to the bandwidth they’re paying for, making remote and hybrid jobs possible. Internet access can help drastically reduce the migration of people from rural to urban areas, allowing them to have equal job opportunities.

The increase in flexible working has allowed workers to carry out a variety of roles from virtually anywhere, providing that they have a high-quality internet connection. This has meant that jobs that were only considered purely urban in the past can be carried out in a rural setting. 65% of workers want to work from home, and many report they are willing to take a salary cut to do it. Here is the work from home statistics 2021.

While this has allowed many workers to carry out office jobs on a remote basis, technology can also be applied to online tools that allow traditional countryside roles like farming and animal breeding to be carried out more efficiently. Since around half of the world’s population lives in a rural setting, these advances will allow them to explore new opportunities or to carry out traditional activities in a more modern way.

The UN suggests that a process known as In Situ Urbanization can be used to make rural living easier, which should avoid more people from heading to the cities to live. This is important because of the dangers of unsustainable urbanization if more people continue heading to the cities to look for work.

More Business Opportunities

One of the best ways to access reliable internet nowadays is through Wide Area Networks (WAN). WAN plays a critical role in making the internet accessible to improve rural living, especially when it comes to creating more business opportunities. 

Because WAN covers a broader geographical area, business offices located in remote areas can easily communicate. With the availability of WAN, more individuals and businesses can use the Internet to complete transactions, such as ordering local products and payment processing.

If more people in rural areas can access the Internet, they also have a higher chance to succeed as entrepreneurs. For instance, small and medium-sized business owners can promote their local products to more consumers in the country and abroad. 

Furthermore, excellent Internet connectivity can help boost the tourism industry in rural areas. Promoting beautiful places, outdoor activities, and food online can help attract tourists to the locality, generating more foot traffic and giving more life to local jobs and businesses.

Access to Products and Services

A fast, reliable internet connection also gives rural families access to the sort of products and services that were once limited to the big cities. Huge retail sites like Amazon and eBay have made it easy to shop online, but even smaller brands tend to offer shipping to remote areas without any fuss.

The cost of shopping and enjoying internet-based services has also been reduced for people who live far from the cities. Rather than paying more for the same things as urban consumers, they can buy online at exactly the same price. Sometimes, but not always, a small shipping fee is charged for certain rural destinations.

If we look at online offers at the time of writing, we can see that coupon websites like Ibotta, Swagbucks, and Groupon can all be used by people living in rural or urban settings. In the same way, big clothing brands like Levi’s, Adidas, and Reebok all have sale items on their site, with offers that possibly wouldn’t be available otherwise in remote areas.

In terms of services, the likes of Netflix and Amazon Prime offer a single price structure in each country regardless of the different regions it contains. A look at an article about bonuses without a deposit also lets us see that online casinos give these deals. In the US, casinos like BetMGM, Bet America, and PartyCasino offer these deals to all eligible players in regulated states.

Source: Pixabay

The way that internet access is becoming faster and easier across the planet could lead to more opportunities and equality. For the moment, it has provided new ways for people living in rural places to work, shop, and carry out leisure activities.