From the report: "The
debate about the digital divide in the field of Internet
use and broadband has, in large part, been generated around statistics of
households that own a computer and have purchased a broadband subscription (in
other words, service penetration). As a result, the political discussion and
public dialogue have focused until now on the need to increase adoption based
on wider coverage of telecommunications networks. The underlying premise of
this statement is that if the problems that delay infrastructure deployment
were addressed, the challenge of the digital divide would be overcome. Without
denying that there is some causal relationship between investment and adoption,
it is important to note that one of the key variables that explains the digital
divide is located on the demand side, rather than on the supply side. The
purpose of this paper is to analyze the divide from this perspective in
industrialized countries and compare it with a similar phenomenon in Latin
America." Read more
