A Star(link) Is Born: What Consequences for the Right to Broadband Internet Access in Rural Areas of the EU?

This study looks at the solutions set forth in both the European Electronic Communications Code and the Digital Agenda for Europe in the effort to guarantee the right to broadband Internet access in rural areas, arguing that these solutions are inadequate in closing the digital divide between rural and urban areas. What seems to be looming on the horizon, then, when it comes to broadband internet access in rural areas, is the singular prospect of a twofold failure: a market failure coupled with a public sector failure. But it is well appreciated that things change rapidly in the world of electronic telecommunications, and so if this conclusion may have been accurate even only a few months ago, it is no longer accurate today. And the reason for it, I submit, is the technological revolution introduced by Starlink.