Introduction

From the northern desert of Atacama to the frigid Antarctic terrain, the mountainous Andes to the endless Pacific, Chile is home to a population and financial system as diverse as its landscape. Continually facing jolting change as it hosts one of the most dynamic economies in Latin America, the country has directly confronted the increasing world movement toward the global information society. However, as telecommunication demands continue to grow, Chile is being pushed into a do-or-die infrastructure development race necessitating immediate appraisal of its current state, evaluation of key issues, and a plan of action if the country is to maintain its impressive economic status.

The digital divide issues span many specific problems with gaps between various subgroups of the Chilean population. In addition, physical infrastructure can also be a hindrance to technological expansion, as Internet growth is difficult when computers and phone lines are limited. Economics also come into play, most notably through uneven distribution of wealth. Social issues, such as literacy and cultural patterns, bring forth another significant facet to the problem. Finally, Internet adoption patterns can also provide key information to barriers and paths to access. In short, the current state of access in Chile is a multidimensional problem that this paper will address.

The Digital Divide in Chile

Chile has taken large strides toward complete infrastructure integration in the past years. The results of the country's efforts are most evident within its strong infrastructure standing as compared to other Latin American countries. For instance, according to World Bank reports in 2000 ranking Chile against other Latin American countries, Chile has more phone lines and personal computers than Argentina, Brazil, or Mexico. Furthermore, Chile falls second only to Argentina in mobile phones and third in Internet hosts, as shown in Table 1. Clearly, Chile has a relative advantage in Latin America.

Table 1: Chile by Comparison

Indicators	Chile	Argentina	Brazil	Mexico
Phone lines per 1,000 people	205	203	121	104
Mobile phones per 1,000 people	65	78	47	35
PCs per 1,000 people	48.2	44.3	30.1	47
Internet hosts per 10,000 people	26.42	38.48	26.22	40.88

Source: World Bank, 2000/2001

However, despite past and continuing efforts, the country still suffers from uneven access, notably by age, gender, education, income, and geographic location. As Table 2 displays, the vast majority of Internet users (68%) are between 15 and 34, with users older than 60 constituting only 4%. There is a clear marginalization of the elderly, as well as a steady decline in access as age increases beyond 35. Users over 35 years of age only constitute 30% of the total user population. In addition, only 34% of Chilean Internet users are women according to the 1999 Stanford report. The gap also applies to education levels, with 37.8% of people that have completed higher education utilizing the Internet, while only 0.3% of those that have only completed primary education accessing the Internet. Table 3 shows the differences in more detail, yet undoubtedly those with less education have less access to information - creating an information deprivation cycle that must be improved (The Information Revolution in Chile, Stanford University, 1999).

Income also affects access, as 24.7% of those at the top tier of income have access at home, versus 1.5% of those at the lowest tier of income. Table 4 illustrates that this trend holds true for access at work as well. At both work and home, each of the five income tiers outlined show a significant difference in access by income. Even in the top three tiers, the percent of access roughly doubles for each level. Finally, the gap also applies to geographic location. According to the same report, access opportunities are most prevalent in and around the city of Santiago; rural cities are much less likely to have access. Throughout the country as a whole, 12.5% of people in urban areas can access the Internet at home, compared to 1.8% in rural areas. This holds true for access at work as well, with 22.8% of people in urban areas accessing at work, versus 4.1% of rural inhabitants. The rural/urban split comprises yet another significant divide within Chile (Chile: Moving Towards the Information Society, 1999, p.38).

This divide may be due in part to Chile's high urbanization. Roughly 85% of the country's 15 million inhabitants live in urban areas. Furthermore, 40% of Chile's population is centered in the city of Santiago, rather than dispersed among several large cities. Consequently, it is within the region of Santiago that the vast majority of the nation's infrastructure is concentrated. The Santiago Chamber of Commerce reported that 57% of Chile's fixed-line phones and 58% of mobile phones are based in the capital city of Santiago. Over half of the Chilean Internet population lives in Santiago (Nua Internet Surveys, Digital Divide Evident in Chile, November 2000).

Telecom, Computer Infrastructure, ISP Issues

According to the most recent data from the 2000 World Bank Report, Table 19, Chile has 205 phone lines per 1,000 people, 65 cell phones per 1,000, and 48.2 computers per 1,000. In addition, at the end of the year 2000, there were 31 ISPs serving over 1,025,000 people, according to a study by Gémines, a Chilean consulting firm. This number is up from an earlier study in March 2000 by the Facultad de Ciencias de la Comunicación e Información from the Universidad Diego Portales, stating that there were 27 ISPs in Chile serving approximately 1 million users at the time (El Mercurio, 02/26/01).

Overall, the combined information shows continued improvement in the country, yet still a need to further implement efforts toward universal access in the nation persists. This has led to recent reports presented to the President of Chile regarding policy and barriers within the information technology. Unequal social and geographical distribution of technology infrastructure, a lack of regulatory frameworks, and a currently reluctant business culture all act as barriers within the country (The Information Revolution in Chile, Stanford University, 1999).

Economic Issues

Chile was driven at full speed into a free market economy in the early 1980s under the dictatorship of General Pinochet, who took control of the country through a bloody coup d'etat that overthrew the Socialist administration of Salvador Allende in 1973. Though severely criticized for the human rights abuses occurred during his regime, the international community gives him credit for the "Chilean economic miracle". Within his tight grip, the previously state-orientated economy was transformed into one of the most open economies in the developing world. This set the foundation for extraordinary investment and growth in the 1990s (Hudson, 1994).

As of 1999, Chile has a population of approximately 15 million, a GNP of $71.1 billion, and a GNP per capita of $4,740. The country's GNP ranks 43rd among countries, bringing it close to the top quarter of all nations. Despite economic promise though, the country still has 20.5% of its citizens below the poverty line. This flows from unequal share of income, with the top 20% of inhabitants holding 61% of the income, while the bottom 20% hold only 3.5% of the wealth. The economy itself breaks down as follows: agriculture provides 8%, industry 33%, manufacturing 16%, and services 59%. Foreign investments equate to roughly $4,638 million, and the official development assistance, as a percent of the GNP, is 0.1% (World Bank, 2000, Table 1, 4, 5, 12, 21).

Social Issues

Chile was considered for a long time as a country dedicated to the education of its people. Major improvements in the access to education were made in the 60s and the beginning of the 70s. The Pinochet dictatorship that began in 1973 greatly altered the public/private composition of the educational institutions, and curtailed the expenditures to a detrimental level (The Information Revolution in Chile, Stanford University, 1999).

Ever since the country regained its democracy in 1989, many efforts have been made to revert the effects of the military regime over the educational system. At the secondary school level, a significant leap can be noticed: in 1982 the coverage among the age group was 65%, while in 1998 it reaches almost 82% (Estadísticas del Sistema Educacional de Chile, 1998). Since 1996 the Ministerio de Educación de Chile has implemented an Educational Reform that we attempt to explain briefly.

Chile has a highly decentralized education system. Municipal authorities manage public schools, and families are free to choose between public and publicly certified schools - all of which receive monthly transfers from the central government, based on attendance. Clearly, the major handicap is insufficient classroom time.

The Government has initiated a process designed to lengthen the school day at all of the subsidized educational establishments, unifying them under the umbrella of a "single shift" system. This new effort requires the creation of infrastructure and organizational conditions necessary to offer a full day of academic studies (the morning and part of the afternoon) for all subsidized educational facilities in Chile - schools are moving from a half-day, six-hour schedule to a full-day, eight-hour program of study. In the end, the longer school day will benefit 2.1 million elementary and secondary school students. The extension of the school day has been supplemented by an unprecedented campaign to reinforce the quality of Chile's teachers. The implementation of the educational reform has included improved training for teachers at the university level, enhanced retraining of around 25,000 teachers currently employed, some 500 scholarships each year for studies abroad, and annual awards for excellence in teaching.

More than 15% of government expenditure goes to improve the access of Chileans to education. Currently, illiteracy is almost non-existent in the 15 to 24 years old population. According to the Human Development Report 2000, the youth literacy rate is 98.7%, while the adult literacy rate is a bit behind with 95.4%.

There is still much more to improve in terms of access to sources of information. For example, out of 1,000 people, only 98 daily newspapers are available in Chile. This is below Argentina, equal to Mexico and above Brazil. A much better situation can be appreciated if we consider radio. In this case, out of 1,000 people, some 354 have access to radio. People owning television sets have not reached this point yet: out of 1,000, 232 have television sets.

Conclusion

Currently, Chile is investing over 1.5% of its GNP in the area of new information technologies (El Mercurio, 11/10/00). There is no doubt that President Ricardo Lagos considers the incorporation of Chile to the global and digital economy a top priority. "What we are discovering is that technology will enable us to surmount the geographical disadvantages of our nation. We must convince ourselves that technology offers tremendous opportunities to our country, and that it is our obligation to take advantage of them to the fullest", he said after his visit to Silicon Valley in November 2000 (Santiago Times, 11/24/00).

A study by the Economics and Management Faculty of the University of Chile and published in December 1999 announced the explosive growth of the Internet was going to have during the year 2000. The argument was based on the following facts:

• Lower prices for telephone connections to Internet
• Multiplication of ISPs, making the market more competitive
• More access at educational institutions and work