Digital Divide in Estonia

Example of a digital divide
The best example of a Digital Divide in Estonia is between our parents and children. The situation is more astonishing as you think of all the painstaking changes the parents have had to live through already, and the government (society, etc.) forcing yet again this new - all-whelming digital world acceptance.

I'm not saying, that the gap is wide. Mostly all of the parents know how to use the internet, how to work there and how to apply the net as an entertainment source. But knowledge on scams, phishing, on-line-threats etc. is not equal between the two age-groups.

Availability of internet
This summer I had a huge fight with some of my girlfriends, whether or not internet is as common as air by it's availability. I was then convinced that there isn't a cottage in this country, where you would not at-least get GPRS service. Apparently I was wrong. My friends violently argued that in some villages in Estonia there is not even mobile service, more less internet. I still do believe though, that there is some sort of internet capability - whether KÕU, or WiMax or Elion-related services, but it is true, that in case the connection haven't been brought to the village by the provider, the cost to do that for the people living there is too expansive. This situation however widens the digital cap between our citizens.

The spread of internet in Estonia is good compared to countries in western Europe. But we can't compare us with them, because we a smaller country (easier to cover with net) and we have a different view on e-services (everything must be dealt with in the internet). Therefore I would say, the spread of internet over Estonia is not as good, as it should be, taking to account, what do we expect to be in terms of e-Estonia.

The solution? Government-subsidised country-wide wireless fidelity, with download capabilities as far as 0.5 Mbps (for now).