Research

This month, the Maine Connectivity Authority (MCA) released the state's draft Broadband Action Plan, which provides a roadmap for Maine's progress toward digital equity moving forward. The plan envisions a Maine where everyone, especially those traditionally underserved and facing more barriers to being connected, can take full advantage of the economic, educational, health, civic, social and other benefits that reliable, affordable, high-speed broadband can provide.

All five major social media platforms—Facebook, Instagram, TikTok, YouTube and Twitter—received low and failing scores for the second consecutive year. The platforms continue to fail at enforcing the safeguarding of LGBTQ users from online hate speech, fail at providing transparency in the use of LGBTQ-specific user data and fail in expressing commitments to protecting LGBTQ users, specifically, policies and commitments to protect transgender, nonbinary, and gender non-conforming users from being targeted. Twitter is the most dangerous platform for LGBTQ people.

As states act to capitalize on federal broadband funding, Louisiana has been leading the way.

One of the key questions around the happiest and unhappiest home internet counties is where they are and what the driver is behind the happiness and unhappiness. Five of the ten unhappiest and five of the ten happiest counties are in states that are considered “Republican” and “Democratic”, respectively.

The latest Customer Satisfaction Index is out from the American Customer Satisfaction Index (ACSI), which measures the public satisfaction of a wide range of US industries and institutions. The survey this year continued to show that the public has a poor opinion of internet service providers (ISP). As a group, ISPs had an average ACSI annual rating of 68. The only industry with a lower rating is gas stations at 65. Subscription TV had an average rating of 69, and the US Post Office had a rating of 70. But there is some interesting good news for some ISPs.

An analysis of data from the latest version of the Federal Communications Commission's National Broadband Map, which the National Telecommunications and Information Administration (NTIA) will use to allocate $42.5 billion in Broadband Equity, Access, and Deployment (BEAD) funding later in June 2023, reveals some interesting trends that affect rural customers. The data shows that Texas has 777,115 “unserved” Broadband Serviceable Locations (BSLs).  Texas has 364,991 BSLs that are considered “underserved,” meaning that they are able to receive broadband service above 25/3 Mbps but below 100/2

The National Telecommunications and Information Administration (NTIA) is scheduled to release state funding allocations for the $42.5 billion Broadband Equity, Access, and Deployment (BEAD) program by the end of June 2023. The allocations will be based on the latest version of the Federal Communications Commission's National Broadband Map released in late May 2023.

Texas lawmakers passed a momentous bill that allocates $1.5 billion to expand internet availability across the state through the new Broadband Infrastructure Fund. If approved by voters in November, that money will be added to an undetermined amount of federal dollars the state will receive. That allocation is slated to be announced by June 30.

For many months, states have raced to add locations to the Federal Communications Commission's National Broadband Map, trying to maximize their allocation of broadband funding from the Infrastructure Investment and Jobs Act (IIJA). But in a few short weeks, the National Telecommunications and Information Administration will allocate funding and then my prediction is we’ll never hear about “missing locations” again.

Evidence of political, psychological, medical, and cultural harms associated with social media continues to mount, particularly in light of the many revelations contained within the documents and testimony shared by Facebook whistleblower Frances Haugen. In many countries, efforts to impose regulatory safeguards related to the social responsibilities of these platforms are underway. In the US, however, we have seen relatively little consequential action at the federal level beyond ongoing antitrust inquiries, a continuing array of congressional hearings, and a series of bills that show few