Wireless diffusion and mobile computing: implications for the digital divide (original) (raw)
Related papers
Comparing internet and mobile phone usage: digital divides of usage, adoption, and dropouts
Telecommunications Policy, 2003
Results from a national representative telephone survey of Americans in 2000 show that Internet and mobile phone usage was very similar, and that several digital divides exist with respect to both Internet and mobile phone usage. The study identifies and analyzes three kinds of digital divides for both the Internet and mobile phones-users/nonuser, veteran/recent, and continuing/dropout-and similarities and differences among those digital divides based on demographic variables. The gap between Internet users and nonusers is associated with income and age, but no longer with gender and race, once other variables are controlled. The gap between mobile phone users and nonusers is associated with income, work status, and marital status. The veteran/recent Internet gap is predicted by income, age, education, phone user, membership in community religious organizations, having children, and gender; for mobile phones, age, work status and marital status are predictors. The gap between continuing and dropout users is predicted by education for Internet usage and income for mobile phone usage. Finally, cross-categorization of Internet and mobile phone usage/nonusage is distinguished (significantly though weakly) primarily by income and education. Thus, there are several digital divides, each predicted by somewhat different variables; and while Internet and mobile phone usage levels in 2000 were about the same, their users overlap but do not constitute completely equivalent populations.
Comparing internet and mobile phone digital divides
2002
The digital dividedifferences in access to and usage of new communication technologies across sociodemographic groupsis a major policy and social issue. While results are fairly consistent on some topics (usage gaps are associated with education, income, and age), there are contradictions in other areas, and differences based on race and gender are largely disappearing. Recent research on the digital divide is almost entirely devoted to the Internet, with little analysis of the mobile phone. The paper summarizes recent research on the extent and distinctions of the Internet (and some mobile phone) digital divide. Analyses of a national representative telephone survey in 2000 considers similarities and differences in three kinds of digital divides for both the Internet and the mobile phoneusers and nonusers, users and dropouts, and recent and veteran users. The results show that these three kinds of digital divides are conceptually and empirically different both within and across the Internet and mobile phone media.
Integrating digital divide and diffusion of innovations approaches, this study analyzes individual-level and market-level influences on the 8-year cumulative adoption of the mobile phone in one developing country. Considering each year separately, as tests of the typical digital divide model, age, education, economic condition, Internet access, and household size were significant divides in all years; employment, marital status, and urbanness were so only in about half the years, and sex in none of the years. However, a diffusion of innovations approach revealed some differences in demographic influences on mobile phone adoption across three adoption categories. Changing mobile phone market conditions were associated with varying adoption levels, and gross domestic product (GDP) per capita correlated with percent adoption except during the global economic crisis.
Broadband adoption| Measuring digital citizenship: Mobile access and broadband
How should we measure broadband adoption by individuals and communities, given different modes of access, including home broadband, smartphone use, and public access? We measure online activities and indicators of skill to understand opportunities for digital citizenship, or participation in society online. Based on a 2011 survey in Chicago, we find more mobile phone adoption among Blacks than among non-Hispanic Whites, and greater likelihood of Internet use for job searches among residents who rely primarily on smartphones to go online than among home broadband adopters. Yet our analysis also shows that broadband at home remains critically important for digital citizenship, and that the growth in mobile phone use has not erased inequalities in participation online and seems unlikely to do so. Moreover, smartphones are not bridging the gap in disadvantaged communities. Multilevel statistical models show inequality in both Internet access and economic and political activities across geographic areas, or communities. Technology disparities that are patterned by place have implications for opportunity and equity at the neighborhood level.
Digital Divides From Access to Activities: Comparing Mobile and Personal Computer Internet Users
Journal of Communication, 2013
Digital inequality can take many forms. Four forms studied here are access to Internet, use of different devices, extent of usage, and engagement in different Internet activities. However, it is not clear whether sociodemographic factors, or devices, are more influential in usage and activities. Results from an unfamiliar context show that there are significant sociodemographic influences on access, device, usage, and activities, and differences in activities by device type and usage. While sociodemographic differences are more influential, device type can increase likelihood of use for some ''capital enhancing'' activities, but only for a computer. Thus, although mobile Internet is available for those on the wrong side of the digital divide, these users do not engage in many activities, decreasing potential benefits.
Clear Thinking on the Digital Divide
2001
As consumer products are introduced, adoption rates tend to vary across socioeconomic groups. In the case of computers and Internet access, these gaps have been termed by many the "digital divide." People with higher incomes and more education have substantially greater rates of access to technology. Likewise, whites and city-dwellers are more likely to have computers and Internet access than non-whites and those who live outside metropolitan areas. As with many other products and services, technology is not equally distributed.
Telecommunications Policy, 2018
The Internet has become an integral part of the everyday life for many Americans, yet a sizable gap still exists in household broadband adoption. Previous studies of the digital divide were restricted by the lack of sufficiently granular data on broadband availability and adoption. Recent efforts of NTIA and the FCC have made it possible for scholars to perform an exhaustive analysis of broadband diffusion. This paper examines differences in fixed location broadband adoption rates among households of various demographic and socioeconomic characteristics and in different geographic locations utilizing the FCC's census tract level adoption data, demographic data from American Community Survey and the census block level broadband availability data from NTIA. Ordered probit models are estimated and used to conduct simulations in order to analyze the determinants of the broadband adoption rate. The results indicate that, although available in most tracts, the lack of broadband availability can still be a deterrent to its adoption. Furthermore, simulations indicate that, in non-metropolitan areas, policies targeting broadband availability would have a larger impact on adoption than policies targeting income or education, for instance. Additionally, where broadband is available, the census tracts with more educated, wealthy and older people who have more choices of broadband providers have higher fixed broadband subscription rates. The positive impact of older population on adoption rate contradicts the conventional belief that the older generation is left behind. Drawing from the previous literature, the older population may be more likely to have a home broadband subscription through traditional technologies, while their younger counterparts, who adapt to new technologies quicker, may be subscribing to mobile broadband.
The Diffusion of the Internet and the Geography of the Digital Divide in the United States
2006
This paper analyses the rapid diffusion of the Internet across the United States over the past decade for both households and firms. We put the Internet's diffusion into the context of economic diffusion theory where we consider costs and benefits on the demand and supply side. We also discuss several pictures of the Internet's physical presence using some of the current main techniques for Internet measurement. We highlight different economic perspectives and explanations for the digital divide, that is, unequal availability and use of the Internet.
The broadband digital divide and the benefits of mobile broadband for minorities
The Journal of Economic Inequality
This study sets out the facts regarding broadband deployment and usage in the US and the particular promise of mobile broadband for minorities. Fixed broadband is nearly ubiquitous and most people have access to four or more mobile broadband providers. Growth in fixed broadband usage is leveling off, while mobile broadband usage growth remains robust. Blacks and Hispanics generally have fewer fixed broadband options but more mobile broadband providers available. Gaps in broadband usage overall (fixed and mobile combined) for minorities persist and are quite large. Matching estimators show that lagging broadband adoption among minority groups is not fully accounted for by demographic and economic characteristics. Mobile broadband holds particular promise for minorities regarding social, medical, and economic inclusion, and these communities have relatively greater reliance on mobile forms of broadband. Two important findings are that 1) blacks are more likely to access the Internet using a mobile phone than whites (after controlling for demographic differences between the groups), and 2) there is no significant gap in mobile broadband usage between minorities and whites by either of the two measures of usage considered. These results can set the backdrop for discussion of US broadband policy.
The Income Digital Divide: Trends and Predictions for Levels of Internet Use
This article examines recent U.S. Census Bureau data to test the hypothesis that the diffusion of the Internet is becoming more rather than less polarized by family income in the United States. Using multiple logistic regression and other odds-based analyses to assess Internet access in the United States from 1997 to 2003, this analysis finds that the odds of access increased most rapidly for individuals at highest family income levels and most slowly for individuals with the lowest income levels. These differential rates of diffusion, combined with an overall slowing of the diffusion of Internet use since 2001, suggest that it may be 2009 before a majority of lowest-income Americans use the Internet. The slow diffusion among low-income groups is not apparent in comparable assessments of Internet diffusion in European countries.