Spatial inequality and the Internet divide in Indonesia 2010–2012

Spatial inequality has been one of the key development characteristics considered across developing countries. However, relatively few studies examine the mechanisms by which spatial inequality explains the existing digital divide in a developing country. Applying the normalisation and stratification thesis in diffusion theory, this study examines the ways in which spatial inequality is related to the Internet divide in Indonesia, a developing country that is currently growing in its use of Information and Communication Technology (ICT), but that has experienced unequal regional development in the last three decades.

Data comes from the Indonesian national socio-economic survey (Susenas) 2010–2012, which comprises 3.3 million individuals, 750,000 households and 292 districts. Far from moving towards convergence, the Internet divide expanded during this period; the inequality of Internet access by age, gender, income, and education deepens and widens across urban–rural, city–countryside, and remote island–mainland island areas. The results of analyses using both stratified and multilevel models indicate that supply factors across districts – particularly district disparities in telecommunications infrastructures, human capital and education services – are associated with the Internet divide. The results are robust against individual, household and district socio-economic characteristics associated with the Internet divide. Enlarging the distribution of telecommunication infrastructures and education facilities, particularly across districts in rural, countryside and remote islands, may thus help to bridge the Internet divide in Indonesia.

[Sujarwoto Sujarwoto is associated with Brawijaya University in Malang, Indonesia. Gindo Tampubolon is associated with the University of Manchester in the United Kingdom]