The graph shows the development of households with broadband internet connections in Norway, by household income in 1000 NOK (source: Statistics Norway).
By 2014, or maybe as early as 2010, all Norwegians will have superfast broadband connections “anywhere” – at home, school, work, cafes, librarian blogger Plinius predicts. Then at least the purely technical side of the digital divide will be bridged.
The development is encouraging, as the overall growth rate is increasing. But bear in mind that “broadband” is very liberally defined here, as “more than ISDN” capacity. As users want to download and view video more and more, and upload their own content, demand for capacity will grow.
There are some astonishing numbers in the material. For instance, although low-income households are lagging behind as expected, still one-third of all households with under 200000 NOK income own a laptop. And of those online (70 percent), 79 percent of unemployed have been online the last three months, 39 percent every day.
