. While ICT does not auto-matically bridge social divides (it can even increase them as access to it is mainly dependent on wealth), deliberate poli-cies may help non-users to become users and thus increase their opportunities. The level of broadband Internet access (‘broadband’) development is a specifi c area of cohesion, which gains increasing importance with the spread of the use of computers and various internet and web-based applica-tions and can be a key factor in decreasing regional dispari-ties in the fi eld of access to information, knowledge, work, goods and services.In this paper we use the OECD (Organization for Eco-nomic Co-operation and Development) defi nition for broad-band, which defi nes broadband as 256 kbit/s in at least one direction. Broadband technologies are fi xed line or wireless. The fi xed broadband technologies are: DSL, cable modem, FTTx/LAN, PLC, WLL and satellite. In the examined ten New Member States (NMS-10, i.e. Bulgaria, Czech Repub-lic, Estonia, Hungary, Latvia, Lithuania, Poland, Romania, Slovakia and Slovenia), but also in the whole EU, the most popular technology is DSL. Therefore, although its market share in the EU-27 decreased from the peak of 81% in Janu-ary 2006to 79% in 2009 (EC, 2010a), in this paper we con-centrate on this technology.The business impact of ICT is well established, however empirical evidence to date about the development impact of ICT is inconclusive. Husing (2004) showed that in the NMS, besides age, education attainment, gender and health status, internet usage is a factor which signifi cantly infl uences the risk of unemployment, which is the main source of poverty. According to Maignan