Mapping digital divide in neighborhoods: Wi-Fi access in Baton Rouge, Louisiana

Abstract

As the Internet becomes widely available, one possible effect is to level the playing field for all members of the society. The opposite effect is to produce a new kind of inequality, commonly referred to as the ‘digital divide’. This study uses the access point mapping technique to obtain the Wi-Fi access point density and analyzes its association with various demographic and socioeconomic attributes in neighborhoods. Fieldwork in Baton Rouge, Louisiana, indicates that low-income households headed by a black, single, female parent with multiple children and no college degree have the lowest rates of Wi-Fi ownership. Results from research following the technique can help inform planners in implementing municipal Wi-Fi networks and can also be used as a proxy measure for socioeconomic attributes that are not updated in a timely manner and are often expensive to collect.