Research

The Commonwealth of Pennsylvania's Statewide Broadband Plan focuses on four challenge areas and opportunities for universal broadband access in the state: broadband service infrastructure and availability; digital equity and affordability; device and technology access; and digital literacy and technical support. The state's broadband plan prioritizes these objectives:

Digital equity ecosystems are interactions between individuals, populations, communities, and their larger environments that all play a role in shaping the work in local communities to advance more equitable access to technology and social, economic, and racial justice. The Digital Equity Ecosystems Measurement (DEEM) framework assumes that local coalitions play a key role in this work.

The pandemic spurred policymakers and community leaders around the country to create programs to connect those without home broadband service or computers. These programs have had an impact. New government data show sharp increases in broadband and computer adoption in the 2019-to-2021 time frame. Initiatives such as the Affordable Connectivity Program (ACP) have helped address “subscription vulnerability” for low-income households. With progress evident, it is time to extend and build on the ACP and local affordability programs.

UltraViolet, GLADD, Kairos, and Women's March commissioned YouGov to conduct a study of attitudes about hate speech, harassment, and misinformation among Americans. The research finds that respondents are broadly positive about a variety of aspects of the online experience—from the internet providing them a way to stay in touch with family and friends, space to pursue hobbies, and a voice. However, the plurality of respondents across all comparison groups are ambivalent about the risks of being online as well as on the internet's impact on mental health.

In Texas, many communities have leveraged creative financing methods for assessing and installing broadband in their communities. If effectively deployed, incoming federal and state broadband funding will create opportunities to bridge longstanding access gaps in low-income and rural communities. The report provides key recommendations for federal, state, local, nonprofit, and community leaders. For federal leaders, the report recommends the following:

This report provides an overview of existing historic inequities among low-income Black, Latinx, and Native American kindergarten through twelfth grade (“K-12”) students which have carried over to digital classroom settings, and have been exacerbated with the onset of the COVID-19 pandemic.

Mid-band spectrum is the key to unlocking the benefits of 5G for American consumers, enterprises, and innovators. This spectrum constitutes a sweet spot, delivering a balance of coverage and deep capacity essential to 5G services. Certain technical aspects of this spectrum are essential for mobile operators to leverage these bands to unleash the full power of 5G and to ensure dependable, high-performance service. These include exclusive licensing, wide spectrum bands of hundreds of megahertz, and full-power radio base stations.

Our recommendations for addressing the three prongs of digital inequity – connectivity, device ownership, and access to training – will require a community-led “all hands on deck” approach. Each recommendation will require commitment from the public sector – including the city of Chicago, the state of Illinois, and/or the federal government – as well as our city’s private sector and broader civic community. Community anchor institutions – both government institutions like CPS and Chicago Public Library (CPL) – as well as community-based nonprofits, will play a critical role.

This report is a culmination of three years of investigation into domestic terrorism and the federal response. This report focuses on the rise in domestic terrorism, the federal response, the allocation of federal resources to addressing domestic terrorism, and the role of social media companies in the proliferation of extremist content. The expansion of social media has led to increased recruitment, dissemination, and coordination of domestic terrorist and extremist related activities.

Broadband service is too expensive for many Americans to afford. Consumer Reports ollected and analyzed more than 22,000 consumer broadband bills.