Sviluppo socio-economico e dotazione di banda larga nei comuni marchigiani

Notwithstanding the progresses achieved in the broadband diffusion and in the country digitalization, many peripheral and rural Municipalities continue to suffer the infrastructural digital divide. This work carries out a first comprehensive mapping of this phenomenon in the Marches region, at a very detailed territorial level, investigating the morphology of the infrastructural digital divide and its relations with selected indicators of socio-economic development. A composite picture emerges, that first confirms that the development potential is positively correlated to the digital infrastructure endowment, with the most rural areas being penalized by private telecom operators, not submitted to universal service provisions. However, exceptions and nuanced situations also occur. Taking into account the polycentric and diffused socio-economic model of Marches, the complex morphology of this divide reinforces the seriousness of the regional structural decline. [Publishers' text].