The digital divide and COVID-19

Abstract

The work examines 'Digital divides and Covid-19', bringing the territorial dimension into line with the relevant economic and institutional aspects. The Digital Divide expression, or digital gap, was intended at the origin of the 1990s as a pure and simple possibility of physical access to the Internet, linked to the availability of tools such as computers and network connections. In fact, both home work (smartworking) and distance learning (DAD) require a wide use of audio/video communications, which is considerably honest for network structures, which are added to normal working traffic volumes. The overall picture of the scenario further worsens if you also consider the bandwidth reduction applied to private users to avoid overload of the entire system and ensure the functionality of essential institutional services. This inadequacy of the infrastructure has rather distant origins, as they date back to the time of privatization of the so-called Economic Public Authorities at the end of the 1990s, a phase then defined as deregulation. The exceptional situation represented by the pandemic event has unequivocally highlighted the sub-dimensioning of the telecommunications network, whose gravity is also evidenced by the content of recent legislative measures.

Keywords

Public health; COVID-19 pandemic; infrastructure; governance; Italy; assessment of policies

JEL codes

I18; H51; H12