Call for Papers

Many rapid changes in the telecom industry have transformed lives and businesses, and impacted many other industries and the society as a whole in ways that would have been hard to foresee just a decade ago. As they grew, telecom companies expanded globally, and have connected billions of people around the world. Yet, this expansion has not been uniform, and the access to Information and Communication Technology (ICT) has not been the same for everyone and everything — geographical location, socio-economic and political circumstances, level of education, discrimination and marginalization of entire communities are seen as main factors. This inequality in access to ICT is referred to as a digital divide and is the main focus of this Feature Topic (FT).

The profound significance of ICT access has never been more apparent than in the past year as the COVID-19 pandemic gripped the entire world. A global event of this magnitude really highlighted the importance of having access to internet and digital technologies; not only has it made a difference in how children attend school and how we work remotely, but also how information, some of which is vital to our collective wellbeing, may reach limited audiences due to the digital divide.

The purpose of this FT is to highlight the problem and to address potential solutions that can help bridge the Digital Divide. This FT solicits articles that explore advances and innovation towards closing the digital divide, and combines policy and technological changes necessary to improve the distribution of ICT and its accessibility. Potential topics include, but are not limited to:

• Digital divide and ICT evolution
• Cost of ICT in addressing the digital divide
• Sustainability and energy efficiency in ICT addressing the digital divide
• Non-terrestrial networks as a solution to digital divide
• New business models to address digital divide
• Impact of spectrum and standardization on digital divide
• Evolving regulatory frameworks and digital divide
• Research and development in addressing the digital divide
• Effects of digital divide on education
• Challenges faced by ICT infrastructure due to the impact of COVID-19 in the acceleration of digital life

Potential authors are advised however that contributions focusing on standards mainly/only, are better suited for the IEEE Communications Standards Magazine

Submission Guidelines

Manuscripts should conform to the standard format as indicated in the Information for Authors section of the Manuscript Submission Guidelines. Please, check these guidelines carefully before submitting since submissions not complying with them will be administratively rejected without review.

All manuscripts to be considered for publication must be submitted by the deadline through Manuscript Central. Select the "Dec2021/Digital Divide" topic from the drop-down menu of Topic/Series titles. Please observe the dates specified here below noting that there will be no extension of submission deadline.

Important Dates

Manuscript Submission Deadline: 1 June 2021, 3:00 pm 15 June 2021, 3:00 pmUS Eastern Time
Decision Notification: 1 September 2021
Final Manuscript Due: 1 October 2021
Publication Date: December 2021

Guest Editors

Ivo Maljević
TELUS, Canada

Gordana Jovanovic Dolecek
Instituto Nacional De Astrofisica, Optica Y Electronica, Mexico

David Mazzarese
Huawei, China

Ivan R. S. Casella
Universidade Federal do ABC, Brasil