Research

On Thursday, December 29, 2022, President Joe Biden signed into law the Consolidated Appropriations Act, 2023 (H.R. 2617). Most importantly, the government funding package, which includes all 12 fiscal year 2023 appropriations bills, keeps the federal government running through September 30, 2023.

On November 23, 2022, the Federal Communications Commission (FCC) released new rules, as required by the Infrastructure Investment and Jobs Act, establishing the Affordable Connectivity Program Transparency Data Collection, which will collect information related to the price, subscription rates, and plan characteristics of the internet service offerings of Affordable Connectivity Program (ACP) participating providers.

Although the Federal Communications Commission (FCC) just created the Affordable Connectivity Program Transparency Data Collection in rules released on November 23, 2022, there is still a great deal of work to be done to collect information related to the price, subscription rates, and plan characteristics of the internet service offerings of Affordable Connectivity Program (ACP) participating providers. First, implementation of the rules now falls to FCC staff; many details will be decided in the coming weeks.

CenturyLink customers in Seattle and Portland receive wide-ranging levels of service for the same price, with poorer residents and people of color more likely to be burdened by slow speeds. Seattle had the worst disparities among cities examined in the Pacific Northwest. About half of its lower-income areas were offered slow internet, compared with just 19% of upper-income areas.

The communications marketplace is in a substantial state of change and re-examination. During the past two years, the COVID-19 pandemic drove millions of people to work and learn remotely, and consumers’ demand for fixed and mobile broadband, video, and audio services increased significantly. At the same time, there were considerable developments in the regulatory, technological, and business environment that will likely influence competition in the sector in the coming years.

Access to high-speed internet (i.e., broadband) has been a focus of congressional interest for decades as a significant—and growing—number of daily activities are conducted online. However, without accurate data, broadband maps may not reliably indicate need, and federal assistance may be provided to areas that already have sufficient service, leaving other areas unserved or underserved. The accuracy of the National Broadband Map is a key concern for many in Congress.

The goal of this article is to offer framing for conversations about the role of measurement in informing public policy about the Internet. Researchers reviewed different stakeholders’ approaches to measurements and associated challenges, including the activities of US government agencies. Overall, researchers found that advances in measurement in the public interest will have to address the following challenges: objectivity of measurements and associated inferences; legitimate business interests in secrecy; respect for privacy, the role of the research community, and sustainability.

Does the entry and exit of competitors to/from broadband services markets have large effects on the quality of broadband plans offered to consumers? Answers to this question inform the design of subsidies to improve broadband in underserved areas and antitrust policy. Researchers found strong evidence that market structure (competition) is very important in explaining the evolution of maximum available speeds available from legacy technology Internet service providers (ISPs) serving US urban census blocks over 2014–2018.

This article compares funding and other broadband policies for rural and Indigenous regions in Canada and in the United States, concluding with lessons from Canadian and US policy and regulatory experiences that could be relevant for broadband policy development in other countries with rural and Indigenous regions. There are many similarities in regulations and policies in the US and Canada concerning Indigenous and rural broadband. Both have several government funding programs to upgrade or extend rural broadband, including to Indigenous/Tribal communities.

This study analyzes how the COVID-19 pandemic has altered individual perceptions of Internet service providers (ISPs) and Internet importance, reliability, and status as an essential public utility (EPU). The authors found that lower-income, younger, women and racial-ethnic minority participants had lower ISP and Internet reliability perceptions. The pandemic increased the perception of the Internet as an EPU by 15% and access to in-home Information and Communication Technology was significantly related to perceptions of Internet importance and reliability.