On July 8, 1999, the U.S. Commerce Department released the third in its series of reports on "the digital divide," the persisting and widening gap between Americans who have access to telephones, computers and the Internet, and those who do not.
In this most recent report, entitled Falling through the Net: Defining the Digital Divide, the Commerce Department’s National Telecommunications and Information Administration finds that although the number of Americans connected to the nation’s information infrastructure is rising dramatically, certain minorities, low-income groups, and residents of rural areas and central cities continue to lack access.
Disparities between the information "haves" and "have nots" discussed in the report include:
Households with incomes of $75,000 or higher are more than 20 times more likely to have access to the Internet than those at the lowest income levels, and 9 times more likely to have a computer at home. These statistics are significant not only for clients of community action agencies, but for agency staff as well.
Whites are more likely to have access to the Internet at home than African-Americans or Hispanics have from any location.
Those in rural areas regardless of income—are less likely to have computers or Interet access than those in urban areas. In fact, at some income levels, those in urban areas are 50 percent more likely to have Internet access that those earning the same income in rural areas.
The report recommends pro-competition policies to reduce the cost of information services, combined with universal service initiatives and community access centers such as schools and libraries.
Falling through the Net: Defining the Digital Divide is based on data collected by the Census Bureau from 48,000 U.S. households. The full report can be obtained at www.ntia.doc.gov or from Kelly Levy at (202) 482-1880.
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