Abstract

Digital divide refers to the gap between populations at different socio-economic levels with respect to their access to the Internet and communication technologies in general. In this chapter, we summarize the recent developments aimed at bridging such inequality from a technical and economic standpoint. After a preliminary discussion on alternative backhaul paradigms, we focus on space-, air-, and ground-based communication paradigms, as well as their integration. Subsequently, we discuss the affordability of these solutions, as it is primarily the economic aspect which hinders digital inclusion.