A journey into the digital abyss
Pundits have fretted for a long time about the widening digital divide between the high and low-income, or developing countries. Some have compared the introduction of internet to the revolution brought about by the invention of writing and the printing press, and are worried that a large part of the low-income countries are missing out. Internet literacy became just as important as conventional literacy.
Although the mobile technology digital divide has been closed (The Economist 2005), there is a need to close the broadband digital divide. Universal, unlimited broadband internet brings numerous direct and indirect benefits, which selectively available, pay per megabyte, slow and unreliable internet can never produce. Broadband internet has the potential to create whole new sectors in the economy (VOX 2011). In high-income countries, broadband access is available anywhere for less than $30 per month, in low-income countries similar access costs hundreds if not thousands of dollars a month.
