Editing Digital divide (section)

===Location===
One can connect to the internet in a variety of locations, such as homes, offices, schools, libraries, public spaces, and Internet cafes. Levels of connectivity often vary between rural, suburban, and urban areas.<ref>Livingston, Gretchen. 2010. Latinos and Digital Technology, 2010. Pew Hispanic Center</ref><ref name="pmid25013823">{{cite journal |last1=Ramalingam |first1=Archana |last2=Kar |first2=Sitanshu Sekhar |title=Is there a digital divide among school students? an exploratory study from Puducherry |journal=Journal of Education and Health Promotion |date=3 May 2014 |volume=3 |pages=30 |doi=10.4103/2277-9531.131894 |doi-access=free|pmid=25013823 |pmc=4089106}}</ref>

In 2017, the [[Wireless Broadband Alliance]] published the [[white paper]] ''The Urban Unconnected'', which highlighted that in the eight countries with the world's highest [[GNP]] about 1.75 billion people had no internet connection, and one third of them lived in the major urban centers. [[Delhi]] (5.3 millions, 9% of the total population), '''[[São Paulo]]''' (4.3 millions, 36%), [[New York City|New York]] (1.6 mln, 19%), and [[Moscow]] (2.1 mln, 17%) registered the highest percentages of citizens who had no internet access of any type.<ref>{{cite web|url=https://wballiance.com/digital-inclusion-key-to-prosperous-smart-cities/|title=Digital Inclusion – Key to Prosperous & Smart Cities|year=2017|publisher=Wireless Broadband Alliance|access-date=August 8, 2021|archive-date=August 8, 2021|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20210808220535/https://wballiance.com/digital-inclusion-key-to-prosperous-smart-cities/|url-status=live}}</ref>

As of 2021, only about half of the world's population had access to the internet, leaving 3.7 billion people without internet. A majority of those are in developing countries, and a large portion of them are women.<ref>{{Cite web|title=With Almost Half of World's Population Still Offline, Digital Divide Risks Becoming "New Face of Inequality", Deputy Secretary-General Warns General Assembly. Meetings Coverage and Press Releases|url=https://www.un.org/press/en/2021/dsgsm1579.doc.htm|access-date=2021-10-26|website=www.un.org|archive-date=October 27, 2021|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20211027024438/https://www.un.org/press/en/2021/dsgsm1579.doc.htm|url-status=live}}</ref> Also, the governments of different countries have different policies about privacy, data governance, speech freedoms and many other factors. Government restrictions make it challenging for technology companies to provide services in certain countries. This disproportionately impacts the different regions of the world; Europe has the highest percentage of the population online while Africa has the lowest. From 2010 to 2014 Europe went from 67% to 75% and in the same time span Africa went from 10% to 19%.<ref>{{Cite web|title=The Global Digital Divide {{!}} Cultural Anthropology|url=https://courses.lumenlearning.com/culturalanthropology/chapter/the-global-digital-divide/|access-date=2021-10-26|website=courses.lumenlearning.com|language=en-US|archive-date=October 26, 2021|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20211026223032/https://courses.lumenlearning.com/culturalanthropology/chapter/the-global-digital-divide/|url-status=live}}</ref>

Network speeds play a large role in the quality of an internet connection. Large cities and towns may have better access to high speed internet than rural areas, which may have limited or no service.<ref>{{Cite web|title=The digital divide – Ethics and law – GCSE Computer Science Revision|url=https://www.bbc.co.uk/bitesize/guides/zkhykqt/revision/5|access-date=2021-12-07|website=BBC Bitesize|language=en-GB |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20220215145951/https://www.bbc.co.uk/bitesize/guides/zkhykqt/revision/5 |archive-date=February 15, 2022}}</ref> Households can be locked into a specific service provider, since it may be the only carrier that even offers service to the area. This applies to regions that have developed networks, like the United States, but also applies to developing countries, so that very large areas have virtually no coverage.<ref>{{Cite web|title=Factors affecting the speed and quality of internet connection|url=https://www.traficom.fi/en/communications/broadband-and-telephone/factors-affecting-speed-and-quality-internet-connection|access-date=2021-12-07|website=Traficom|language=en|archive-date=December 6, 2021|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20211206110954/https://www.traficom.fi/en/communications/broadband-and-telephone/factors-affecting-speed-and-quality-internet-connection|url-status=live}}</ref> In those areas there are very limited actions that a consumer could take, since the issue is mainly infrastructure. Technologies that provide an internet connection through satellite are becoming more common, like Starlink, but they are still not available in many regions.<ref>{{Cite web|last=Crist|first=Ry|title=What is Starlink? Elon Musk's satellite internet venture explained|url=https://www.cnet.com/home/internet/starlink-satellite-internet-explained/|access-date=2021-12-07|website=CNET|language=en|archive-date=December 7, 2021|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20211207180528/https://www.cnet.com/home/internet/starlink-satellite-internet-explained/|url-status=live}}</ref>

Based on location, a connection may be so slow as to be virtually unusable, solely because a network provider has limited infrastructure in the area. For example, to download 5 GB of data in Taiwan it might take about 8 minutes, while the same download might take 30 hours in Yemen.<ref>{{Cite web|title=The global digital divide (article)|url=https://www.khanacademy.org/computing/computers-and-internet/xcae6f4a7ff015e7d:the-internet/xcae6f4a7ff015e7d:the-digital-divide/a/the-global-digital-divide|access-date=2021-10-26|website=Khan Academy|language=en|archive-date=October 26, 2021|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20211026224533/https://www.khanacademy.org/computing/computers-and-internet/xcae6f4a7ff015e7d:the-internet/xcae6f4a7ff015e7d:the-digital-divide/a/the-global-digital-divide|url-status=live}}</ref>

From 2020 to 2022, average download speeds in the EU climbed from 70 Mbps to more than 120 Mbps, owing mostly to the demand for digital services during the pandemic.<ref name=":208">{{Cite book |last=Bank |first=European Investment |url=https://www.eib.org/en/publications/20240079-eib-group-activity-in-eu-cohesion-regions-2023 |title=EIB Group activities in EU cohesion regions 2023 |date=2024-07-15 |publisher=European Investment Bank |isbn=978-92-861-5761-5 |language=EN}}</ref> There is still a large rural-urban disparity in internet speeds, with metropolitan areas in [[France]] and [[Denmark]] reaching rates of more than 150 Mbps, while many rural areas in [[Greece]], [[Croatia]], and [[Cyprus]] have speeds of less than 60 Mbps.<ref name=":208" /><ref>{{Cite web |title=Urban-rural Europe - digital society |url=https://ec.europa.eu/eurostat/statistics-explained/index.php?title=Urban-rural_Europe_-_digital_society |access-date=2024-07-31 |website=ec.europa.eu |language=en}}</ref>

The EU aspires for complete gigabit coverage by 2030, however as of 2022, only over 60% of Europe has high-speed internet infrastructure, signalling the need for more enhancements.<ref name=":208" /><ref>{{Cite web |title=Broadband Connectivity in the Digital Economy and Society Index {{!}} Shaping Europe's digital future |url=https://digital-strategy.ec.europa.eu/en/policies/desi-connectivity |access-date=2024-07-31 |website=digital-strategy.ec.europa.eu |language=en}}</ref>