ADSL deployment in the Community of Madrid: Investigating the geographical factors of the digital divide

Realising the potential of the Information Society requires an adequate broadband infrastructure, a sine qua non condition for usage. In many countries, the broadband offer’s geographical coverage strongly depends on ADSL expansion. Thus, it seems important to know the variables conditioning the deployment of its commercial offer. The descriptive analysis made in the Community of Madrid points out that the “size” variable of the municipality (be it measured in number of inhabitants, households, telephone lines or economic activity units) conditions the arrival of ADSL. The discriminant analysis confirms this result although it also shows how other variables affect the different deployment stages.