Digital divide across territories

In short:

1. The digital divide is not limited to a lack of individual skills: it also covers gaps in equipment and network coverage between territories.
2. Rural areas and some overseas territories often combine an older stock of equipment with later connection to very high-speed broadband.
3. Digital usage itself varies by territory, independently of residents’ individual skills.
4. Local authorities have levers of their own, distinct from skills training, to reduce these territorial gaps.

The digital divide refers to inequalities in access to digital tools and services. At the individual level, it mostly covers a lack of skills, a topic already covered on this blog under digital illiteracy. It also has a territorial dimension: a resident may fully master digital tools and still be penalised by ageing equipment or insufficient network coverage where they live.

What is the territorial digital divide

The territorial digital divide refers to the gap separating territories along three distinct dimensions: the equipment available in homes and public places, the quality of fixed and mobile network coverage, and the resulting intensity of digital usage. These three dimensions do not always overlap: a territory well covered by fibre can still show low usage if household equipment remains old, and conversely.

This territorial dimension differs from digital illiteracy, which concerns individual skills regardless of where someone lives. The two phenomena often overlap, an isolated resident sometimes combining a weak network with limited ease with digital tools, but they call for different responses: equipment and network are a matter of infrastructure planning, skills are a matter of training and support.

Inequalities in digital equipment across territories

The first level of the territorial divide concerns equipment: computers, smartphones and home connections are not spread evenly across the territory. Rural areas and some overseas territories concentrate a larger share of households lacking recent equipment or sharing a single device among several household members.

Equipment in public places also acts as a buffer: libraries, France services spaces and third places make computer terminals and support available, which partly offsets a deficit in individual equipment. The density of these places nonetheless remains uneven, with sparsely populated territories often relying on a single access point for a wide population area.

Network coverage gaps between territories

The second level concerns the infrastructure itself. Fibre deployment has long followed a differentiated schedule between dense areas, privately led rollout areas and publicly led rollout areas, the latter depending on public initiative networks run by local authorities under the France very high-speed broadband plan. Mobile coverage follows a similar logic, with the remaining pockets of insufficient coverage addressed by dedicated programmes such as the New Deal Mobile.

For a local authority, completing the territory’s connection does not close the subject: a resident who is connected but does not activate their subscription, or who stays on an entry-level offer for lack of an alternative, remains partly excluded despite available infrastructure.

Digital usage that also varies by territory

Beyond equipment and network, usage itself differs between territories for reasons that go beyond individual skills. The local economic structure, the average age of the population, and the presence or absence of physical administrative services nearby directly influence the propensity to use online services. A territory where physical reception of public services has been maintained logically sees fewer procedures shift online, for reasons of habit more than capacity.

This connects to a subject already covered on this blog regarding town hall online procedures: a well-designed online service can remain under-used if the territory it serves combines a fragile network connection with a habit of in-person reception, two factors that cannot be fixed by improving the interface alone.

What local authorities can do about the territorial digital divide

The levers for action differ depending on the dimension targeted. On equipment, local authorities can rely on existing digital mediation venues and refurbishment schemes to widen access to functional hardware, rather than limiting themselves to individual aid distribution alone. On network coverage, the territorial digital infrastructure masterplan remains a key planning tool for prioritising remaining connections and tracking their progress with operators.

On usage, measuring actual adoption, rather than mere technical availability, helps identify the parts of the territory where support is still needed despite an available network. This approach connects with the logic of the smart territory, where data is used to adjust a public policy rather than decide it upfront. It also benefits from being combined with existing human support schemes, without which infrastructure planning alone remains insufficient to close the observed gap.

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