What term describes this gap between the connected and unconnected?

The digital divide describes the gap between people who have reliable access to the internet and digital devices and those who do not, a gap that increasingly shapes access to education, jobs, and government services as more of daily life moves online. Those left on the wrong side of this divide, often due to income, age, or living in rural areas, risk falling further behind in ways that compound over time.

Net neutrality is a separate policy debate about whether internet providers must treat all online traffic equally rather than about who has access at all. A paywall is a barrier requiring payment to view specific content, a narrower commercial concept unrelated to broad connectivity gaps.

Even as smartphones have spread rapidly worldwide, billions of people still lack consistent, affordable internet access, meaning the digital divide remains one of the largest unresolved inequalities of the connected era.