INFORMATION SOCIETY: YAWNING DIGITAL GAP BETWEEN EAST AND WEST.

As eight former Communist countries prepare to join the EU in May 2004, 148,000 telephone lies are equipped with DSL technology, according to figures reported by Point Topic, a British firm of consultants, for the first quarter of this year. DSL technologies allow fixed telephone lines to be used to transfer sound and huge quantities of data at the same time. This is the most popular system for accessing high-speed Internet services. By way of comparison, Germany with a population of 82 million has more inhabitants than the eight countries taken together (75 million) but had 3.640 million DS lines during the same period.

In spite of a fully liberalised telecommunications market, East European companies are still stymied by cumbersome bureaucratic system and have often been slow to provide DSL services. After a never-ending struggle between the incumbent Cesky Telecom and the regulatory authority, DSKL services only began to be offered in the Czech Republic last March. In Slovakia , the first services appeared in July.

The other major obstacle is the cost of the subscriptions. Paradoxically, they are often more expensive than in Western Europe, where the average wage is three to four times higher. A service that costs Euro 50 in Prague can cost only Euro 20 in Paris. The prices are staying higher for private users, which means market penetration will remain small until prices fall, according to Joshua Budd, an analyst with the Prague-based IDC market research...