Aged care facilities are slow to provide WiFi access for residents, and interviewees said they would like to see aged care operators provide more support.

As technology in the classroom becomes a necessity, many children could be starting at a disadvantage as the financial strain becomes too much.

The additional coverage will roll out over the next four years as part of the Rural Broadband Initiative phase two/Mobile Black Spots Fund (RBI2/MBSF) programme expansion.

People surveyed in the report say they feel excluded, isolated, powerless and have limited opportunities because they are unable to access the internet.

The company has responded to a request from MBIE for feedback on the challenges and opportunities of a 5G rollout.

The Digital Economy and Digital Inclusion Advisory Group will advise the Govt on how it can build the digital economy and reduce digital divides.

"I’ve worked on how we can remove the stereotype of how an engineer is a guy, and make it about the role itself."

"Left unaddressed this digital divide will exacerbate the social divide."

Curran says the previous government didn’t make the report public until after the election as it exposed the digital divide in New Zealand.

“This Government intends to progress its goals to close the digital divide by 2020."

What needs to be brought into focus now is that issues of inequality and lack of access are not limited to emerging or developing economies.

The Digital Divide map is an interactive tool which shows the different digital divides New Zealanders and their communities are facing.

The Computers in Homes programme will no longer be funded by the government. 20/20 Trust will continue to try & help bridge the digital divide in NZ.

"We’re excited to see Spark Jump turn more homes in Massey into digital learning environments & enable more students to thrive in the digital world."

“As more and more services go online there’s an assumption that we can all get onto our devices and complete these activities.”

Fewer than 400,000 people speak Icelandic, and linguists are hypothesising that this is how the language dies.

"We are still concerned about the digital divides relating to household income, location and ethnicity groups."

“Our stakeholders are placing increasingly high requirements on us, and we are striving to turn these challenges into competitive advantage.”

The split between those who see it as a threat compared to an opportunity points to a lack of understanding.

The huge extent of the global digital divide has been uncovered, showing that 57% of the world's urban population are unconnected to the internet.

United Nations Special Rapporteur warns that digital technology in education can be dangerous and widen inequality gaps, furthering digital divide.

“Kids who don’t have internet access are hugely disadvantaged compared to their classmates. The National Library’s topic support service is being cut in favour of ‘curated online resources’.