This study "finds that, historically, telecommunications rollout has had a positive and significant impact on increasing inequality and little impact on quality of life variables." Authors also find evidence that the Internet will also be a force for income divergence.
"The strong influence of education and literacy on these choices demonstrated in the preceding analysis is a strong argument for continuing to improve the quality of education in American society."
Despite significant improvements in nominal levels, severe gaps of digital inclusion still exist in the American economy. This paper argues that, for certain groups, migration towards mobile computing and digital inclusion may transpire from 2G voice centric mobile telecommunications to data centric mobile computing devices. Accordingly, this analysis employs a large data set to investigate what socio-economic factors are determinant for the diffusion of mobile telecommunications; how these findings can be extended to help close the digital divide; and how these findings can inform policy making concerning the digital divide.
Author Keywords: Digital divide; Mobile computing; 2G & 3G mobile communications; Internet
