Research

Measuring broadband is an ongoing challenge for policymakers and, for many participants in broadband policy debates, often a source of frustration. The frustration about broadband measurement emanates from what seems knowable – at least it is about other infrastructure. We know where our roads and highways run. Today it is easy to know when they are clogged, where there are tolls, and how much those tolls cost. Electric infrastructure is essentially ubiquitous and it isn’t hard, in most places, to find out the cost of a kilowatt hour and compare prices among providers.

According to recent National Telecommunications and Information Administration (NTIA) survey data, roughly 28 million households in the United States still do not use the Internet at home (Goldberg, 2019). In its survey, the NTIA also asked why households did not use the Internet at home, with 58 percent citing a lack of interest as their main reason for being offline and every fifth household (21%) stating that it is too expensive.

High-speed broadband internet access is a critically important issue for many aspects of daily life, yet populations in rural areas are often unserved or underserved with reliable internet connectivity. Expanding broadband internet coverage in rural areas may have significant economic potential, especially since it enables precision farming which in turn increases yields, particularly for row crops such as corn and soybeans.

In 2023, more than 60 bills were introduced at the state and federal level requiring greater parental consent, age restrictions, or safety-by-design measures. Half as many bills have already been introduced in the first few months of 2024. Most of these laws target youth access to online adult content and sales that are age-gated in real life. Yet some states are going further to apply age verification requirements to social media, responding to growing concerns about children’s experiences online.

This project explores three unique case studies which address digital access, affordability and adoption in  low-income multi-family housing.

High-speed Internet access is now essential for full participation in modern society. A reliable home Internet connection can have a transformative impact on a household and can lead to a wealth of previously untapped opportunities in areas like education, healthcare, employment, and civic participation. As Internet service providers (ISPs) and policymakers continue to find ways to expand high-speed broadband connectivity to all United States residents, it is essential no one is left behind.

The US population continues to age rapidly, and this aging boom has a multifold impact on the senior housing industry. Contrary to popular belief, seniors have become increasingly technology-savvy and are enthusiastic internet users. While senior residents continue to consume mainly linear/cable television, online streaming is on the rise. Seniors also increasingly use mobile applications for banking, video chatting, gaming and engaging with their local community.

This report quantifies the size of the nation’s wireless infrastructure sector, including purpose-built cellular towers, indoor and outdoor small cells, macrocell sectors, annual infrastructure spending, and the American jobs that sustain this resource. Key statistics include:

Up until last year, Nancy Navarro didn’t know how to check her kids’ grades or schedule online appointments. She had Wi-Fi at home so her 15 and 11-year-old kids could do their homework on their school-issued laptops, but she wasn’t online herself very often. But then she noticed that her kids’ school was offering free digital training classes through the local nonprofit EveryoneOn, which aims to connect as many underserved people as possible on the internet.

Using a 2003–2019 dataset on broadband adoption in Algeria, we explore its pattern and the market structure, institutional, and socio-economic factors that influenced its pace, which was considerably delayed due to political and social instability during the decade of the 1990s. We propose an integrative model selection approach that simultaneously searches for the best diffusion model among the Bass, Gompertz, and Logistic diffusion models, as well as relevant explanatory variables.