Digital divides and mobile Internet in Indonesia: Impact of smartphones

• Four-levels of digital divides in mobile Internet in Indonesia are assessed.
• Younger and more educated people tend to use mobile Internet via smartphones.
• Feature phones are owned by less educated and older people.
• Mobile leapfrogging is not supported except for the ownership of future phones.
• Use of smartphones is associated with higher information acquisition in daily life.

Mobile leapfrogging refers to the process by which new Internet users access the Internet using mobile phones and not PCs. This study examines how and whether mobile phones narrow the digital divide among Indonesian people at four levels (device ownership, Internet adoption, use, and information acquisition). A self-administered questionnaire survey was conducted in three large cities in Indonesia (N = 605). The results indicated that, at different levels, younger and more educated people utilize mobile Internet, especially via smartphones. In contrast, feature phones are owned by less educated and older people regardless of income level, but Internet usage on such phones is more prevalent among younger and more educated people. Moreover, the adoption of the PC-based Internet promotes the ownership of smartphones. These results indicate that mobile leapfrogging is the case only with the ownership of feature phones. Furthermore, in comparison with feature phones, smartphones and personal computers are more associated with information handling capacity in daily life. These findings suggest that ICT literacy education is important, and one should not be optimistic about the mobile Internet’s prospects for narrowing the digital divide in developing countries.