Internet access is a special resource of which needs has become universal across the public whereas the service is operated in the private sector. Mobile Network Operators (MNOs) put efforts for management, planning, and optimization; however, they do not link such activities to socioeconomic fairness. In this paper, we make a first step towards understanding the relation between socioeconomic status of customers and network performance, and investigate potential discrimination in network deployment and management. The scope of our study spans various aspects, including urban geography, network resource deployment, data consumption, and device distribution. A novel methodology that enables a geo-socioeconomic perspective to mobile network is developed for the study. The results are based on an actual infrastructure in multiple cities, covering millions of users densely covering the socioeconomic scale. We report a thorough examination of the fairness status, its relationship with various structural factors, and potential class specific solutions.

翻译：互联网接入是一种特殊资源，其需求已普及至公众，而服务由私营部门运营。移动网络运营商（MNOs）致力于管理、规划和优化，但并未将这些活动与社会经济公平性联系起来。本文首次尝试理解客户社会经济状况与网络性能之间的关系，并研究网络部署与管理中潜在的歧视问题。我们的研究涵盖多个方面，包括城市地理、网络资源部署、数据消耗和设备分布。为此，我们开发了一种新颖的方法论，能够从地理-社会经济视角审视移动网络。结果基于多个城市的实际基础设施，覆盖数百万用户，密集分布在社会经济尺度上。我们报告了对公平状况的全面考察、其与各种结构因素的关系，以及潜在的特定阶层解决方案。