ments lead to increased economic activity in the investment area, such as an increase in employ- ment in different sectors (e.g. telecom sector for ICT deployments, civil engineering sector for building terrestrial physical infrastructure, financing services). Indirect effects. These are long-term effects which boost innovation and productivity via increased affordability and broadband speeds. People can work at a distance, can collaborate more easily, can have virtual meetings, etc. So, an employee does not need to go to an office to access a document or have a meeting. All these possibilities save time for completion of the same tasks, which in other words is increased productivity. 4.6 Strategic Aspects for Ultra-Broadband Induced effects. These include spillovers into other economic sectors (in different verticals) by providing access to education, healthcare, online banking services, e-commerce and the overall digital economy, entertainment, smart cities, smart industry, smart transportation systems, and SO on. So, the general benefits of ultra-broadband include economic effects such as increased productivity and innovation, then social effects via improved access to different services as well as improved public services via broadband access such as healthcare, or improved energy efficiency via creation of smart homes or cities. However, at the end of the second decade of the twenty-first century there are bil- lions of people still not connected via broadband. The question that arises is, why are all people not yet connected? Overall there are several reasons for this, which include the following [36]: Lack of infrastructure. Absence of sufficient physical infrastructure means no provi- sion of meaningful access. Non-affordability. This happens when the cost of broadband Internet access is too high for the given people in a given country or region. Lack of skills. This refers to Internet applications and services unawareness, as well as lack of digital literacy and digital skills. Lack of digital content. T