Urban communities face unique challenges in effectively gaining broadband access, which primarily involve affordability and literacy. As government agencies plan for federal broadband distribution opportunities, there are steps to take to ensure digital inclusion efforts reach urban communities, those working in the space contend.
SpaceX is aiming to expand its satellite internet service Starlink to school buses in the US. The company mentioned the effort in a September 20 filing with the Federal Communications Commission.
The Federal Communications Commission is committing nearly $55 million in new funding rounds through the Emergency Connectivity Program, which provides digital services for students in communities across the country.
In an effort to expand Internet access, local and federal policymakers have sought to use speed test data to determine where to allocate funding.
This research characterizes the state of Internet equity in Chicago (IL), focusing on different dimensions of Internet equity, including availability, affordability, and adoption. To this end, we combine multiple existing datasets to understand the digital divide in Chicago and the contributing factors. Our findings show a disparity in broadband adoption rates across neighborhoods in Chicago: Broadband adoption varies between 58--93% across community areas, with low access areas mostly concentrated in South and West Chicago.
A longstanding approach to measuring Internet performance is to directly compare throughput against pre-defined benchmarks (e.g., 25 Mbps downstream, 3 Mbps upstream).
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