Precisions about the Broadband Divide in Chile

This chapter aims to quantify more exactly the adoption of broadband at the household level in Chile by assessing its impact on three types of digital divide: between users and nonusers of the Internet, between usage at home and elsewhere, and between home broadband users and modem home users. This was done by a statistical analysis of WIP-Chile surveys of 2003 and 2006. At least in Chile, the main digital gap is still between users and non users of the Internet, both in terms of age and education level. Income mainly affects the probability of having broadband access at home. Since broadband has rapidly expanded among all socioeconomic segments, it is becoming less relevant as a predictor of access and Web usage. Other factors are also weak predictors of both residential use of the Internet and broadband connections at home. New data and surveys are required to clarify the point.