Obtaining indirect internet access: An examination how reasons for internet non-use relate to proxy internet use

Internet non-use is increasingly concentrated in vulnerable groups of people, especially among ageing populations and those with low socio-economic status. As participation in society becomes largely dependent on use of internet-enabled technologies, internet non-users may seek alternative ways of using the internet. Proxy internet use (PIU), where internet non-users ask internet users to perform online activities on their behalf, is a strategy for obtaining (indirect) internet access. This study examines factors for engagement in PIU, focusing specifically on how non-users’ reasons for disengagement relate to their engagement in PIU. The results from multivariate analyses of survey data from a nation-wide representative sample show that 47% of internet non-users in Slovenia who report having someone available for PIU in fact engage in PIU. In analysing four types of reasons for internet non-use—those related to interest, access, costs and skills—the results show that access issues are negatively related to engagement in PIU. Conversely, reasons related to skills issues are positively related to engagement in PIU. Considering that access to online services through PIU offers an important degree of digital inclusion, the results of this study have important policy implications. Policy initiatives tackling digital inequalities should be sensible to access and skills issues resulting in disengagement. For example, policies directed at providing and maintaining internet access at a household level may result in non-users’ increased opportunities for PIU. In contrast, skills policies should be directed at creating opportunities for informal and person-centred learning of digital skills, considering that non-users who are more aware of their deficiency in skills might be more aware of online opportunities.     

The influence of digital divide frames on legislative passage and partisan sponsorship: A content analysis of digital equity legislation in the U.S. from 1990 to 2020

Government funding is essential for digital equity. Scholarship on policies to improve internet access often examines the funding mechanisms behind subsidies, or the quality and reach of services provided. However, a better understanding of the issues and constituencies to receive government support to date may help digital equity activists more strategically lobby for new digital divide policies in the future. To do this, we take a macro-level approach to Van Dijk's resources and appropriation theory and examine how the framing of all digital divide–related U.S. Congressional legislation introduced between 1990 and 2020 may be associated with a bill's passage or the political party of its sponsor. Content analysis revealed that bills highlighting privacy literacy programs, educational outcomes, and corporate transparency were more likely to be passed into legislation. Bills sponsored by Republicans were 422% more likely of being passed into legislation. Certain frames were also associated with partisan sponsorship: Republican-sponsored bills were more often framed around deregulation, privacy programs, corporate transparency, and rural access, whereas Democrat-sponsored bills were more often framed around digital skills such as digital literacy and educational outcomes. Findings serve as a historical record of digital equity priorities in the U.S. and highlight possible strategies for future policy design.     

Evolution and determinants of digital divide in Brazil (2005–2013)

During the last decades, the widespread growth of information and communication technologies (ICT) has posed incentives to broaden the participation of individuals in social, political and economic dimensions of life. However, utilization of ICT also involves access to technology and infrastructure, and acquisition of skills to deal with innovations and, thus, digital literacy is, primarily, a complementary good. The digital divide expresses inequalities in access and utilization of ICT among individuals and populations in different countries. The study adopts inequalities indexes of Internet access and mobile phone ownership to measure use of ICT goods, accounting for the digital divide in Brazil. The inequality indexes are also split according to main determinants using four nationally representative survey data from 2005 to 2013. Results indicate that the digital divide among individuals is decreasing quite fast among Brazilians over time. However, there is room for policies of mass access to ICT goods based on mobile Internet broadband access. In addition, digital illiteracy, evaluated by lack of education, is one of the main determinants of the digital divide in the country, especially among elderly individuals.     

The end justifies the definition: The manifold outlooks on the digital divide and their practical usefulness for policy-making

Based on the theory of the diffusion of innovations through social networks, the article discusses the main approaches researchers have taken to conceptualize the digital divide. The result is a common framework that addresses the questions of who (e.g. divide between individuals, countries, etc.), with which kinds of characteristics (e.g. income, geography, age, etc.), connects how (mere access or effective adoption), to what (e.g. phones, Internet, digital TV, etc.). Different constellations in these four variables lead to a combinatorial array of choices to define the digital divide. This vast collection of theoretically justifiable definitions is contrasted with the question of how the digital divide is defined in practice by policy makers. The cases of the United States, South Korea, and Chile are used to show that many diverse actors with dissimilar goals are involved in confronting the digital divide. Each of them takes a different outlook on the challenge. This leads to the question if this heterogeneity is harmful and if countries that count with a coherent national strategy and common outlook on digital development do better than others. It is shown that the effect of a coherent vision is secondary to tailor-made sector-specific efforts. On the contrary, a one-size-fits-all outlook on a multifaceted challenge might rather be harmful. This leads to the conclusion that it is neither theoretically feasible, nor empirically justifiable to aim for one single definition of the digital divide. The digital divide is best defined in terms of a desired impact. Since those are diverse, so are the definitions of the challenge. The best that can be done is to come up with a comprehensive theoretical framework that allows for the systematic classification of different definitions, such as the one presented in this article.     

Race,ethnicity, and telecommunications policy issues of access and representation: Centering communities of color and their concerns

This paper examines how and why activist groups representing marginalized communities of color are increasingly engaging in communications technology policy issues, particularly in relation to issues of digital access and representation. It explores three distinct but related case studies to disentangle the issues and concerns of a range of communities of color, and the challenges and opportunities for their advocates in navigating the highly technical communications technology policy arena: the first case study, which centers on the NAACP's original opposition to net neutrality, reveals the primacy of issues surrounding the “digital divide” to populations of color, and the difficulties of engaging in technical conversations surrounding Internet governance when issues of access persist. Meanwhile, the second case reviews the campaign by Free Press to promote set-top box liberalization as an issue of representation and diversity to both policymakers and citizens. The final case, which examines the work of the Tribal International Carrier to build an alternative internet service network for Native populations, highlights the precarity which organizations must strategically navigate in order to mitigate the influence of both the state and large corporations over Internet policy issues in order to both serve and represent their constituents. In all, this paper presents and extends upon a novel approach to communications policy research, foregrounding the need to integrate critical race frameworks and, relatedly, to center the breadth, depth, and lived experiences of communities of color, which can therein facilitate more inclusive digital media and communication environments and policy structures.     

Determinants of internet use by school-age children: The challenges for Mexico during the COVID-19 pandemic

The COVID-19 pandemic has further highlighted the deep digital divide in Mexico and the enormous challenge faced by its education system in continuing to educate the country's students while under confinement. The objective of this article was to examine the determinants of internet access, use and productive uses for school-age children in households of different socioeconomic levels. The Heckman selection model was estimated based on data taken from the Encuesta Nacional sobre Disponibilidad y Uso de Tecnologías de la Información en los Hogares (ENDUTIH or National Survey on the Availability and Use of Information Technologies in the Household) 2018. The results obtained show that the probability of having children internet accessing and usage patterns (homework, courses, and blogs) depends on level of schooling, economic status, digital skills, and place of residence, as well as the presence of electronic devices and infomediaries in the household. These findings suggest the urgent need to redesign current ICT policy with a long-term integrated vision that guarantees access to ICTs and their productive use for students immersed in an ecosystem of educational innovation for the XXI century.     

Telecommunications policy and individuals with disabilities: Issues of accessibility and social inclusion in the policy and research agenda

Information and communications technologies have become an integral part of life in an information society, affecting employment, education and many other daily activities. For individuals with disabilities, equal access to telecommunications remains a concern, as many technologies that are developed do not allow for equal access. Law and policy have made significant progress in some nations, but sizeable barriers remain to the social inclusion of individuals with disabilities in telecommunications technologies and services. This paper examines the importance of equal access to telecommunications for individuals with disabilities in both the formulation and the implementation of policy. Analyzing issues of policy and implementation, this paper discusses policy questions and potential areas of research to better understand the relationship of telecommunications policy to access for persons with disabilities.     

中国如何应对日益扩大的“数字鸿沟”

本文分析了中国面临的三大”数字鸿沟”及其产生的原因，认为缩小“数字鸿沟”的战略意义在于促进中国实现由信息大国到信息强国的飞跃，逐步建立利用知识和信息促进发展的模式，是中国追赶发达国家的重要途径。因此，必须采取针对“数字鸿沟””的国家治理，其政策核心是促进资源流向能够促进经济发展和知识发展的领域。     

The gap not only closes: Resistance and reverse shifts in the digital divide in Russia

The reduction of the digital divide due to the availability of the Internet and the improvement of skills is accompanied by reverse and resistance trends associated with the influence of socio-demographic and economic characteristics of users. In this paper, we estimate the volume and dynamics of the digital divide in access and use of the Internet in Russia by key social groups according to a longitudinal survey for 2008–2018. We found that along with the reducing of the digital divide, its gaps still remain. The greatest polarization is associated with the income, age, and type of residence of the respondents. The most vulnerable social groups on access to ICTs and Internet use are the low-income, the elderly, citizens with disabilities, and those living in rural areas. The reverse shifts in the digital divide were recorded mainly in relation to the Internet usage by age between the middle-age and youth and by gender. In addition, we pointed out the most resistance social groups to reduce the digital divide in the period under review, in particular, by income and type of residence of the respondents. The findings contribute to an understanding of the dynamics and social consequences of the digital divide and can be taken into account in social policy and measures.     

Moving targets: Introducing mobility into universal service obligations

Structural changes in the economies of developing countries are leading to increased mobility of work and family life, and so an accommodating set of universal service obligations (USOs) implies new goals that extend beyond wireline telephone penetration and access. Wireless telephony penetration frequently exceeds wireline penetration in developing countries, and digital wireless platforms can incorporate Internet technology. This paper evaluates the history of telecom development in Mexico that has led to wireless telephony becoming the new consumption norm. The study takes the eMexico project as a case study of diversified USOs beyond wireline telephony. It considers potential obstacles to incorporating mobile phone and Internet (“Wireless Web”) services into Mexico's diversified universal service policy, including economic barriers to political mobilization over issues of telecom policy.     

Implementing policy on next-generation broadband networks and implications for equity of access to high speed broadband: A case study of Australia's NBN

Next generation telecommunications infrastructure is expanding and supporting rapid growth of broadband technologies and a digital economy. In this context, digital information and communications technologies (ICTs) are of increasing importance as a means for people to gain access to health or social services, employment opportunities, information and social networks. In this article we draw on our recent case study research to examine the policy (and politics) shaping implementation of Australia's National Broadband Network (NBN) and its likely effects on equity of access to high speed broadband (HSB) services. We monitored NBN policy and implementation from 2015 to 2018 through policy documents, reports, and media. To assess likely effects of NBN policy on implementation and subsequently on equity of access to HSB we: a) applied a framework defining four elements of equity of access; and b) analysed stakeholder views drawn from media articles and 22 interviews with experts on NBN policy including politicians, government staff, and industry representatives. We found that equity considerations competed with political and commercial imperatives during the rollout of the NBN. This resulted in positive and negative consequences for equity of access to HSB, with a change in policy and implementation in 2013 bringing greater risks to equity of access. The case study provides a framework for considering equity in the implementation of next generation telecommunications infrastructure and highlights the importance of considering equity in the evaluation of telecommunications infrastructure.     

New insights from a multilevel approach to the regional digital divide in the European Union

This paper contributes to the literature on digital divide by analysing regional- and country level determinants of the regional digital divide in the EU, based on panel data and using the multilevel analysis- the three level random slope model. The results indicate that only a mix of effective regional and national measures could mitigate the regional digital divide in the EU. Stimulating regional economic growth, increasing the tertiary education attainments, boosting R&D expenditure, and discouraging early leaving from education are regional- and national level policy measures that are found to successfully reduce the regional digital divide in the EU.     

Multivariate and geospatial analysis of technology utilization in US counties

We examine geographic patterns and socio-economic and social capital correlates of the adoption and utilization of information and communication technologies (ICTs) in 3,108 counties of the United States. Access and use of ICTs are found to vary significantly among counties in metropolitan, micropolitan, and rural parts of the country. Clusters of high, moderate, and low ICT utilization counties are characterized by geodemographic and socio-economic attributes. Regression findings indicate that young dependency ratio, college education, working age population, and race and ethnic variables are major correlates of ICT use. We analyze and explain novel findings on associations of income, ethnicity, and social capital variables with ICT usage in light of the technology-use landscape in the US. Spatial bias and large sample size fallacy issues are addressed and policy recommendations to remediate the digital divide in US counties are provided.     

Digital divide or digital opportunity in the Mississippi Delta region of the US

This study analyzes the interdependence of telecommunications manufacturing, services, and user industries in the Mississippi Delta region of the US to understand the social and economic prospects of poorer rural areas of the US as advanced technologies rapidly proliferate. An underlying assumption is that telecommunications industries should not be viewed only by the employment they directly support; they should also be analyzed in terms of their linkages to other industries and how those linkages influence the competitiveness and growth prospects of businesses and public institutions in the region by building a capable community of technology users. The absence of leading telecom manufacturing and service firms in rural Delta counties together with low levels of connectivity suggest that digital divide problems are very real for the region. The central economic development challenge should be to ensure that rural businesses, government, health care, education, and non-profit institutions gain access to an advanced telecommunications infrastructure and that they develop the capacity to leverage this access to enhance their performance and expand their reach.     

The role of digital technologies in open innovation processes: an exploratory multiple case study analysis

Digital transformation has undoubtedly become a key enabler of innovation as evidenced by the numerous firms that use digital technologies to manage their innovation processes. This issue is even more relevant today when innovation processes have become more open and require greater resources in the different implementation phases to capture and transfer knowledge within and outside the firm's boundaries. This implies additional challenges in managing the increasing amount of knowledge and information flows. Accordingly, digital technologies can be used and implemented to manage open innovation processes through easier access and sharing the knowledge created and transferred. Nevertheless, literature in these fields does not provide a structured view of how and why digital technologies are used to manage innovation processes in an open perspective. This paper aims to bridge this gap by adopting the theoretical lenses of change management to identify the managerial actions at organizational and process level that companies perform to implement digital technologies in their open innovation processes. Accordingly, the paper investigates how and why these managerial actions required for and enabled by digital technologies help firms to develop and nurture open innovation. From an empirical point of view, the exploratory multiple case study analyzes nine firms operating in different industries and varying in size, market share, and organizational structure.     

Creating a national strategy for Internet development in Chile

A growing body of literature points to the importance of both economic and non-economic factors in reducing the digital divide. This paper examines Chile as a successful case where changes in government policies dramatically increased Internet access from about 2% of the population in 1998 to 23.8% in 2002. After reviewing the literature, the paper examines the debates in Chile over Internet development, tracing how public opinion was able to influence government policies, and how in turn, government policies increased Internet access. Specific policies include lowering telephone rates, connecting the various national networks, creating public access centers, and passing e-commerce legislation.     

An index for cross-country analysis of ICT infrastructure and access

The purpose of the present article is to devise an index for measuring and analyzing the divide among countries in the area of information and communication technology (ICT) infrastructure and access. Understanding the fact that there are many factors influencing the digital divide, this research is not intended to measure the digital divide in terms of different inequalities, but it rather attempts to take only one of the most important of these factors (maybe the most important of them) into consideration for measuring and analyzing divide between countries, that is, ICT infrastructure and access. In contrast to the majority of the indices in this context, the proposed index is built upon defining and conceptualizing ICT infrastructure and access. In addition, the index uses core ICT indicators on which the international community and experienced modelers have consensus that they measure the information society suitably. Therefore, the index can be exploited as the basis and standard for internationally comparable statistics in ICT infrastructure and access area. Moreover, it is the second index based on core ICT indicators after the Digital Opportunity Index (DOI) that was developed by the International Telecommunication Union (ITU) in 2005. However, in the current article, using Data Mining methods, Markov Chain Monte Carlo (MCMC) (to impute missing data) and Multi-Stage Factor Analysis (FA) (for aggregating the indicators), many problems and limits of the existing indices, the DOI in particular, such as the lack of data for analyzing ICT infrastructure and access, use of equal weighting or experts’ opinions to aggregate the indicators, are avoided. Since this index is developed by statistical procedures, it is flexible, adaptable, and modifiable over time while it sustains its original structure. It is comprised of two main dimensions: ‘ICT access’ and ‘coverage of mobile and access tariffs’ and 10 indicators. Finally, comparing the proposed index with the other indices in this field and gross national income (GNI) per capita of 150 countries, this index is tested; then, it is utilized to measure and analyze the divide between countries in the two dimensions, different geographical areas, economic conditions, and levels of ICT infrastructure and access.     

Broadband and rural areas in the EU: From technology to applications and use

The paper examines current trends and policy issues related to broadband access and use in the rural areas of European Union (EU) member states. It draws selectively on the findings of a recently completed, multi-country project focused on current and future trends in broadband provision, applications and use in the enlarged European Union.The paper reviews key aspects and examples of the research literature and policy initiatives related to socio-economic and policy aspects of broadband, especially those focused on spatial inequalities of network rollout, access and use. It presents the main trends and issues related to broadband access and use in rural areas in EU countries and considers some related implications and conclusions.     

Economic growth and broadband access: The European urban-rural digital divide

This paper estimates the regional effects of high-speed broadband coverage on economic growth in a panel of 1348 regions across all European Union Member States between 2011 and 2018. We distinguish between different connectivity speed levels by aggregating the available regional data across all existing broadband technologies, and investigate how regional differences in the contribution of broadband coverage to real economic growth can quantitatively explain the persistence of the European urban-rural digital divide. In order to make our results robust to endogeneity and disaggregated data availability issues, we employ a bootstrap-based bias correction for the dynamic fixed effects estimator. We find that expansions in the provision of lower-speed broadband access accelerated annual per capita growth in both urban and rural regions through diminishing returns to scale, but that the effects were weaker in those regions characterized by larger ruralization. High-speed broadband coverage, on the contrary, could only be significantly related to rural economic growth and had no impact within their urban counterparts. We find evidence that the costs of these high-speed rural connectivity expansions had not yet been offset, but that they exhibit increasing returns to scale with cut-off levels nearing full coverage. These results indicate that the high-speed digital expansion of rural Europe is a potential gamechanger for further rural development policies through its role as a general-purpose infrastructure, and consequently argue in favour of increased efforts to close the urban-rural digital gap.     

Community response grids: E-government, social networks, and effective emergency management

This paper explores the concept of developing community response grids (CRGs) for community emergency response and the policy implications of such a system. CRGs make use of the Internet and mobile communication devices, allowing residents and responders to share information, communicate, and coordinate activities in response to a major disaster. This paper explores the viability of using mobile communication technologies and the Web, including e-government, to develop response systems that would aid communities before, during, and after a major disaster, providing channels for contacting residents and responders, uploading information, distributing information, coordinating the responses of social networks, and facilitating resident-to-resident assistance. Drawing upon research from computer science, information studies, public policy, emergency management, and several other disciplines, the paper elaborates on the concept of and need for CRGs, examines related current efforts that can inform the development of CRGs, discusses how research about community networks can be used to instill trust and social capital in CRGs, and examines the issues of public policy, telecommunications, and e-government related to such a system.