Research

On May 3, Rep Bob Good (R-VA) wrote to Acting Federal Communications Commission Chairwoman Jessica Rosenworcel with a request for a handful of information:

This report details strategies for successfully expanding high-speed internet access to every residence, business, and institution in Wisconsin by 2025, including solutions to make broadband affordable for all communities. Among others, the Task Force report included recommendations to:

The National Association of Counties' Broadband Task Force was chartered with the premise that "if you can't connect… you can't compete." It is the equity issue of our hour. After months of study and dialogue, our Task Force concluded that a comprehensive, coordinated approach is needed to pursue new broadband infrastructure investment, public policies, and user skills.

A new paper by a pair of economists says the gains from infrastructure spending aren’t always clear-cut and recommends that policymakers examine the costs and benefits of each project. James Poterba, an economist at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology, co-wrote the paper with Edward Glaeser of Harvard University for the Aspen Economic Strategy Group, a division of the nonpartisan Aspen Institute. In some cases, the authors write, the best solution doesn’t involve c

High-speed internet is a necessity, but rural Americans, particularly poor people and people of color, often lack access to this important utility. This challenge requires investment on a historic scale as well as public understanding of the disparities between rural and urban areas during the pandemic, what they mean for rural Americans’ access to services that meet their basic needs, and why broadband is a part of the country’s essential infrastructure. Using data from the Federal Reserve’s Survey of Household Economics and Decisionmaking, the column finds:

In a first-of-its-kind effort, the Broadband Together initiative is asking people across the country to share their monthly internet bills — so we can find out what we’re really getting for our money, and advocate for a better internet that costs less. Consumer Reports is asking thousands of consumers to share their monthly internet bills at broadbandtogether.org so CR can analyze the cost, quality, and speeds that are being delivered to people in communities across the US, and to bet

In 2016, the Federal Communications Commission adopted a comprehensive reform and modernization of its Lifeline program. For the first time, the FCC included broadband as a supported service in the program, allowing support for stand-alone mobile (think cell phone) or fixed broadband Internet access service (think home broadband service delivered over a wire), as well as bundles including fixed or mobile voice and broadband. But the 2016 decision also set out to zero-out support for voice-only services.

A first-of-its-kind report documenting the wide array of current and projected spectrum uses by space-based systems. The report addresses a wide range of government and commercial space-based operations and the value they provide to the economy and our quality of life, both in the United States and globally.

More than almost any other group, Black communities in the Black Rural South lack affordable, high-speed, quality broadband—38 percent of African Americans there report they do not have access to home internet. Expanding broadband could help reduce the deep racial and economic inequalities in education, jobs and healthcare in the region. Too often, efforts to close the digital divide conflate “rural” with “White” and “urban” with “Black.” The Joint Center's report authored by Dr.

As President Biden and Congress debate a $1.2 [tr]illion infrastructure bill that includes a historic investment in broadband, it’s an important moment to question what we mean by digital equity and what it will take to achieve it.