Analysis

In November 2021, President Joe Biden signed into law the largest U.S. investment ever in broadband access, affordability, and adoption. With $65 billion flowing to broadband, Congress also asked the Federal Communications Commission to determine what impact the Infrastructure Investment and Jobs Act will have in achieving universal service goals for broadband. This week, the FCC launched a proceeding seeking public comment on how to best make sure everyone in the U.S. can use broadband.

The security and privacy landscape has continued to evolve since NTIA first asked about it in the 2015 Internet Use Survey. High-profile data breaches and debates about the role of technology in people’s lives have kept concerns about privacy and security in the forefront. The spread of emerging technologies such as smart home devices and always-on voice assistants, as well as business models predicated on the collection, use, and sale of personal information, means these concerns have taken on increased urgency.

There is no such thing as a 25/3 Mbps broadband connection, or a 100/20 Mbps broadband connection, or even a symmetrical gigabit broadband connection on fiber. For a long list of reasons, the broadband speeds that make it to customers vary widely by the day, the hour, and the minute. And yet, we’ve developed an entire regulatory system built around the concept that broadband connections can be neatly categorized by speed. What do regulators mean when they set a speed definition of 25/3 Mbps?

The Infrastructure Investment and Jobs Act allocates $65 billion to support various broadband initiatives. Keller & Heckman previously examined the $42.45 billion Broadband Equity, Access and Deployment (“BEAD”) Program and the $1 Billion Middle Mile Grant Program, each of which focuses on deploying broadband networks to unserved and underserved areas.

Technology is a tool, a tool that can be used, if distributed equitably, to improve society. At the Benton Institute for Broadband & Society, we are not for broadband just for broadband’s sake. In the "Broadband & Society" part of our name, we recognize that in our increasingly digital lives, equitable access to broadband and a just society are inseparable. Broadband's potential, its promise, is not just quicker communication, but improving education, healthcare, job training and acquisition, economic development, delivering government services, and so much more.

The launch of President Biden's Alliance for the Future of the Internet has now been delayed after civil society activists and even some officials in the US government raised concerns that the new initiative would draw scarce resources away from existing fora dedicated to the advancement of internet freedom, deepen distrust between like-minded actors, and undermine the digital rights of those who live in repressive societies.

This Beyond Telecom Law Blog entry highlights the current rural broadband funding opportunity presented by the $1.15 billion “ReConnect” program administered by the US Department of Agriculture’s (USDA) Rural Utilities Service (RUS). Under the Funding Opportunity Announcement for its third round of Reconnect funding (ReConnect III), the RUS will be awarding loans and grants to construct, improve, or acquire facilities needed to provide broadband service to rural areas.

In March 2021, Recon Analytics conducted a demographically representative survey of 1,000 Americans using internet and cell phones, asking them about their opinions and attitudes around universal access, funding mechanisms, conduct, and usage. When it comes to broadband in the US, Americans overwhelmingly support two ideas. First, they agree that fast broadband should be available to every American at prices they can afford.

While six large internet service providers (ISPs) dominate the United States fixed broadband market, Ookla's Speedtest Intelligence reveals smaller providers are sometimes the fastest ISPs in a given state in the Midwest, South and West. This analysis examines US states in which smaller ISPs were the fastest fixed broadband providers during Q3 2021. Major findings include:

Real estate is complicated. Broadband is complicated. Together, they’re very complicated. The Federal Communications Commission recently launched a new proceeding to refresh the record on broadband competition and access in the multifamily and commercial real estate sectors. It sought similar information in 2017 and 2019.