Eastern Europe

This page covers digital divides in the former Soviet empire -

• introduction
• measures - some key statistics of development and connectivity
• the former Soviet Union
• the Balkans

     introduction

Debate about digital divides in Europe has had several facets, including -

• disagreement about the responsibilities of dominant telecommunication companies in Western Europe
• claims that government initiatives have focussed on rural/remote areas at the expense of inner cities and poorer suburbs
• questions about the efficacy of some large scale e-government programs, criticised as driven by ICT vendors and enthusiasts within public sector agencies rather than addressing community needs
• a shift from conceptualising divides solely in terms of infrastructure to divides that encompass cultural differences, accessibility and price
• a winding-back of enthusiasms for telecentres and other community access points in Western Europe as household penetration increases and the online population normalises
• increased recognition that divides in Eastern Europe may be more durable, given low household/institutional uptake of personal computers, uneven telecommunications infrastructure (often with high pricing from a dominant carrier) and inattention to accessibility issues

Particular concerns are heightened in considering states in Central Asia.

     measures

As of 2004 population (m) and GDP (US$bn purchasing power parity) for selected states in Europe and successors of the USSR (and satellites) was -

state Austria Belgium Czech Republic Denmark Estonia Finland France Germany Greece Iceland Ireland Italy Latvia Luxembourg The Netherlands Norway Portugal Spain Sweden Switzerland United Kingdom Russia Albania Azerbaijan Belarus Bosnia Bulgaria Croatia Georgia Hungary Kazakhstan Kyrgyzstan Poland Romania Tajikistan Turkmenistan Ukraine Uzbekhistan

Population 8 10 10 5 1 5 59 82 10 0.3 4 57 2 0.4 16 4 10 41 8 7 59 143 3 8 9 4 7 4 5 10 15 5 38 22 6 4 48 25

GDP 241 293 167 170 18 141 1,630 2,280 213 8 145 1,559 23 28 476 169 187 915 238 221 1,606 1,318 14 29 59 24 61 49 13 147 97 8 443 160 7 27 264 44

Australia's GDP (PPP) was US$571 billion.

An ITU report for 2004 identifies 'main' landlines and aggregate subscribers (landline and mobile) -

state	lines per 100 people	total subscribers (m)
Austria Belgium Czech Republic Denmark Estonia Finland France Germany Greece Iceland Ireland Italy Latvia Luxembourg The Netherlands Norway Portugal Spain Sweden Switzerland United Kingdom Russia Albania Azerbaijan Belarus Bosnia Bulgaria Croatia Georgia Hungary Kazakhstan Kyrgyzstan Poland Romania Tajikistan Turkmenistan Ukraine Uzbekhistan	45 46 33 64 33 45 56 66 46 65 49 44 27 79 48 48 40 41 76 70 56 25 8 12 31 24 35 42 13 35 16 8 31 19 3 7 25 6.7	11.7 13.8 14.2 8.6 1.7 7.3 78.4 125 16 0.48 5.79 88.7 2.1 0.89 22.6 6.39 14.6 56.5 15.6 11.5 94.7 73.4 1.3 2.4 4.1 1.9 7.5 4.4 1.5 12.3 5.2 0.68 26.9 14.6 0.3 0.3 25.8 2

and internet hosts (per 10,000 inhabitants) and personal computers (per 100 inhabitants) -

state Austria Belgium Czech Republic Denmark Estonia Finland France Germany Greece Iceland Ireland Italy Latvia Luxembourg The Netherlands Norway Portugal Spain Sweden Switzerland United Kingdom Russia Albania Belarus Bosnia Bulgaria Croatia Georgia Hungary Kazakhstan Kyrgyzstan Romania Tajikistan Turkmenistan Ukraine Uzbekhistan

hosts 1,565 234 376 2,699 486 2,215 386 366 250 4,758 420 282 258 1,125 3,334 1,918 552 217 1,466 1,026 356 59 1.6 7 20 83 78 12 479 14 11 22 0.2 1.2 27 1

PCs 41 35 21 65 87 48 48 56 9 47 49 31 21 62 68 57 13 25 76 82 60 13 1.7 5 19 3 14 1 11 2.7

The Transparency International 2004 Corruption Perceptions Index ranked selected European and former Soviet states as follows (with New Zealand, Australia and Canada at 2, 9 and 12 respectively) -

state Finland Denmark Iceland Sweden Switzerland Norway The Netherlands United Kingdom Austria Luxembourg Germany Belgium Ireland France Spain Portugal Estonia Slovenia Hungary Italy Lithuania Greece Czech Republic Bulgaria Latvia Slovakia Croatia Poland Romania Russia Macedonia Serbia Albania Moldova Uzbekistan Kazakhstan Kyryzstan Ukraine Tajikistan Turkmenistan Azerbaijan

rank 1 3 3 6 7 8 10 11 13 13 15 17 17 22 22 27 31 31 42 42 44 49 51 54 57 57 67 67 87 90 97 97 108 114 114 122 122 122 133 133 140

The UNDP report for 2004 suggested that life expectancy at birth and adult literacy (%, ages 15 plus) was -

state Austria Belgium Czech Republic Denmark Estonia Finland France Germany Greece Iceland Ireland Italy Latvia Luxembourg The Netherlands Norway Poland Portugal Spain Sweden Switzerland United Kingdom Russia Albania Azerbaijan Belarus Bosnia Bulgaria Croatia Georgia Hungary Kazakhstan Kyrgyzstan Romania Tajikistan Turkmenistan Ukraine Uzbekhistan

expectancy 76 78 75 76 71 77 78 78 78 79 76 78 70 78 78 78 73 76 79 80 79 78 66 72 72 66 74 70 74 73 71 66 68 70 68 66 69 69

literacy 100 100 100 100 99 100 100 100 97 100 100 98 99 100 100 100 99 92 97 100 100 100 99 96 97 99 94 98 98 100 98 99 97 97 99 96 99 99

     former Soviet Union

Gladys Ganley's Unglued Empire: The Soviet Experience with Communications Technologies (Norwood: Ablex 1996) and Robert Campbell's Soviet and Post-Soviet Telecommunications: An Industry Under Reform (Boulder: Westview Press 1995) offer a perspective on developments in the former USSR, often not considered in discussions of the divide.

There are more recent statistics in Perfiliev's 2000 Internet Development In Russia: Territorial and Institutional Particularities article and the 2005 RAND study Russia and the Information Revolution (PDF)

     Balkans

The CDT has mapped connectivity in Eastern Europe.

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