This paper focuses on factors associated with the development of e-government services by local public administrations (PAs) in Italy. Using data from 1,176 municipalities in 2005, we show that the combination of internal competencies and context-specific factors is different when explaining decisions to start e-government activities vs. the intensity of such activities. Local PAs involved in e-government are larger, carry out more in-house ICT activities and are more likely to have intra-net infrastructures than PAs offering no digitized services. They are also located in regions having large shares of firms using or producing ICTs, where many other municipalities offer digitized services, and where population density is low. The range and quality of e-gov services increase with their stock of ICT competencies, their efforts to train workers, and their ability to organise interfaces with end-users. Moreover, the range and quality of services is correlated with the broadband infrastructure development of regions.