Anna Read

How Do Speed, Infrastructure, Access, and Adoption Inform Broadband Policy?

Significant parts of American life, including education, health care, shopping, and workforce training, are increasingly happening online. And because of this trend, households need reliable broadband—high-speed internet connections—more than ever before. In response, policymakers at all levels of government are working to expand the availability of broadband service.

How Broadband Infrastructure Gets Built

Each day in the US, Americans access billions of webpages, stream millions of videos, and participate in thousands of hours of virtual meetings over broadband networks.

How Can the United States Address Broadband Affordability?

The COVID-19 pandemic underscored the need for high-speed internet access in Americans’ homes and elevated debate about the cost and affordability of connections and devices. Congress responded with emergency measures designed to keep households online.

Strategies for Crafting Effective State Broadband Plans

States have made significant strides toward improving the availability and affordability of broadband service in recent years. A key step in many of those efforts has been the development of formal, statewide broadband expansion plans, often at the behest of the state legislature or as a strategic component of the state’s broadband program, that use data and stakeholder input to identify and refine goals, recommend activities, and detail implementation strategies.

Regional Utility Districts Can Help Fill Gaps in Broadband Service

Regional utility districts formed among multiple towns or municipal entities represent one of several emerging frameworks for providing broadband service to unserved or underserved areas, particularly in more rural parts of the country. Historically, such utility districts have been formed to build out infrastructure and provide essential services.

Partnerships With Electric Utilities Can Help Expand Broadband Access

Investor-owned utilities, typically large, publicly-traded electricity distributors, can play a critical role in bringing broadband services to rural and underserved areas by allowing providers to use their existing infrastructure to provide the middle mile network for making high-speed internet connections. Rural areas present a challenge for broadband providers: These regions tend to be more costly and less profitable to serve than densely populated urban and suburban areas. Connecting rural communities requires middle and last-mile networks.

States Considering Range of Options to Bring Broadband to Rural America

State policymakers have increasingly sought new solutions to improve the availability of broadband, including allowing electric cooperatives to offer service, the formation of regional utility districts to provide broadband, and the use of investor-owned utilities to improve the availabili

How State Broadband Offices Use Scoring Metrics to Evaluate Grant Applications

In a November 4, 2021, memo sent to state broadband offices that are participating in The Pew Charitable Trusts’ technical assistance program, the “Broadband Education and Training Initiative,” Pew experts explored how states use scoring metrics to evaluate broadband grant applications. The choice and weight of metrics should reflect each state’s priorities in order to ensure funded projects will advance state goals and deliver meaningful benefits to residents.

How State Grants Support Broadband Deployment

Millions of people across the country still lack sufficient access to broadband service, largely because they live in rural communities, which are the most difficult and expensive to serve. The challenges of deploying broadband network infrastructure in rural locations, particularly low population density and difficult terrain, create high costs and low returns on investment that discourage providers from expanding into those areas. As of fall 2021, 44 states had established grant programs to cover the costs of broadband deployment in areas where it would otherwise not be economically feasi

How States Are Using Pandemic Relief Funds to Boost Broadband Access

As states start to allocate funds from the American Rescue Plan Act (ARPA), enacted in March 2021, many policymakers are using some of the new resources to fund broadband expansion, by increasing funding for existing programs or establishing new ones. The relief package, which Congress passed to help Americans struggling because of the COVID-19 pandemic, includes two programs administered by the U.S.