FINE-GRAINED PATTERNS OF THE DIGITAL DIVIDE: DIFFERENCES OF BROADBAND ACCESS WITHIN FINLAND

Access to the Internet plays a central role in the development of an information society. However, because of the required telecommunications infrastructure is very expensive to build, there is no sufficient demand for a market-based provision of relevant telecommunication infrastructures in many areas. Therefore, some citizens and other actors are left without an (up-to-date) access to the Internet. The resulting gap between individuals and social groups with and without access to the Internet, which is also often linked with a lack of money, skills and/or motivation to use it, is referred to as the Digital Divide. Several (national, regional and local) governments implement policies at diminishing it, by means of providing access to the Internet in such regions where the market does not provide it, and by enhancing the citizens ' 'information society' resources. This article investigates the territoriality of broadband access to the Internet in Finland. Not surprisingly, the empirical results support the view that regions with higher population densities have a better access. With regard to the debate on the Digital Divide, it is interesting to observe that variations in broadband access to the Internet do not follow administrative borders, but the ir spatial patterns are much more fine-grained. Clearly, this has implications for efficient and righteous information society policies, and for an evaluation of the effectiveness of such policies