Research

Society has long fretted about technology’s impact on youth. The hyperconnected nature of social media has led to new anxieties, including worries that these platforms may be negatively impacting teenagers’ mental health. Despite these concerns, teens themselves paint a more nuanced picture of adolescent life on social media.

The findings from the three Communications Equity and Diversity Council working groups offer guidance to states and localities seeking to prohibit “digital discrimination” in broadband deployment, adoption, and use, as well as in the contracting and grants processes for funds related to forthcoming broadband infrastructure.

The Telework Metrics and Cost Savings Act (H.R. 7951) would expand telework training for managers, require agencies to develop goals for telework participation, and collect data on productivity and cost savings from teleworking. The bill would require the Office of Personnel Management to publish guidance to assist agencies in performing those activities and to improve the reliability of telework data collected by the agency. CBO estimates that enacting H.R. 7951 would have an insignificant effect on direct spending and no effect on revenues over the 2023-2032 period.

This report, mandated by the Consolidated Appropriations Act 2021, details the work of the National Telecommunications and Information Administration’s (NTIA) Office of Minority Broadband Initiatives (OMBI) in expanding access and identifying barriers to high-speed internet service for students, faculty, and staff at Historically Black Colleges and Universities (HCBU), Tribal Colleges and Universities (TCU), and Minority Serving Institutions (MSI) and within anchor communities. Examples of OMBI’s key 2021-2022 accomplishments highlighted in the report include:

If you’re frustrated with the speed of your home Internet, what can you do to improve it? Before making the leap to a new provider or absorbing the often difficult-to-swallow costs of a high-speed service plan, you might want to consider another culprit of slow Internet: your WiFi connection. WiFi connection performance is determined by factors independent of your access connection, while the access connection performance is (primarily) determined by the specific service contract you purchase from a service provider (ISP).

Virginia has made significant strides to curtail the many facets of the digital divide that exist throughout the Commonwealth. As part of the Virginia Funders Network’s (VFN) efforts to support the Commonwealth’s commitment to achieving universal connectivity by 2024, this memo recommends several steps that funders can perform "now:"

The Ending Platform Monopolies Act (H.R. 3825) would restrict some business activities for large online platforms. Specifically, the bill would prohibit large online platforms from using their platforms to sell goods and services from other lines of business that the platform owns and operates; requires business users to purchase products or services from the platform to obtain access to or preferred placement on the platform, or operating lines of business that create of interest. The Congressional Budget Office (CBO) estimates the following effects:

Telecommuting relates directly to transportation demand and pattern, congestion mitigation, and population migration, as well as to the sustainability, livability, and prosperity of communities. The objective of this research is to assess the impact of temporarily shifting the workforce to telecommuting in Greater Minnesota on workplace policy changes, employee support, and future telecommuting plans; employees’ experience of telecommuting during COVID-19 and forecast of future telecommuting; and differences among geographic areas, life circumstances, and demographic characteristics.

How can policymakers best estimate Affordable Connectivity Program (ACP) eligibility and participation rates? The key finding here is that using 200% of the Federal Poverty Level as the only eligibility criteria significantly undercounts eligible households and therefore inflates participation rates. Further, the undercount varies significantly across states (which we hypothesize is linked to whether states expanded Medicaid eligibility after 2010).

The Small Business Broadband and Emerging Information Technology Enhancement Act of 2022 (S. 3906) would require the Small Business Administration to hire a coordinator for and train employees on broadband and emerging information technologies and to complete a study and report to Congress. The act also would require small business development centers to help entrepreneurs access broadband and other emerging information technologies. CBO estimates that enacting S. 3906 would not affect direct spending or revenues.