Acceptance of Mobile Telephony in Rural Areas: An Extension of Rural Technology Adoption and Use Model

This paper explores the acceptance of mobile telephony in rural and remote areas. In these areas, acceptance of technologies is not automatic, which creates a usage divide. To prevent this situation and reduce the usage divide, the Rural Technology Adoption and Use Model (RTAUM) was developed using data from populations not yet covered to predict their post-connectivity behaviour. This study aims to develop an extended version of this model using post-connectivity data. To this end, we collected data from the same population that served as the field of study for developing the RTAUM. The data was analysed to bring missing hypotheses to the pre-existing model and to see the validity of the predictive model after connecting. Our results enabled us to better understand the fact that the adoption of telephony by people living in rural areas does not guarantee the actual use that they make of it. In reality, in these regions, people will only use technology if it meets their expectations in terms of performance, if they are used to it and, above all if the price is right for them. Variables such as habit, the value of the price and the perception of security are essential factors contributing to the acceptance of technology.