Research

The number of states with 60% or more users experiencing the Federal Communications Commission’s minimum standard for fixed broadband speeds of 100 Mbps downstream and 20 Mbps upstream increased from nine states in the first half (1H) 2024 to 22 states (and the District of Columbia) in 2H 2024. Seven states have 65% of more users experiencing the FCC’s minimum standard for broadband of 100/20 Mbps. New Mexico, Colorado, and Minnesota had the biggest year-over-year increase in the percentage of Speedtest users that receive 100/20 Mbps broadband speeds. New Jersey, Connecticu

With artificial intelligence no longer the stuff of science fiction, its benefits and risks are being debated by everyone from casual observers to scholars.

A majority of global technology experts say the likely magnitude of change in humans’ native capacities and behaviors as they adapt to artificial intelligence will be “deep and meaningful,” or even “dramatic” over the next decade. The results are based on a canvassing of a select group of experts between Dec 27, 2024, and Feb 1, 2025. Nearly 200 of the experts wrote full-length essays on the primary topic: Being Human in the Age of AI. An overwhelming majority of those who wrote essays focused their remarks on the potential problems they foresee.

“One more thing” is the line that Detective Columbo typically uttered in the eponymous 1970s detective series; it signaled that Columbo was on the brink of solving the episode’s puzzle. If Columbo were around today, the Affordable Connectivity Program (ACP) may have vexed him had he pondered its impact. Did it move the broadband adoption dial? If so, by how much?

The US faces a spectrum crisis, with long-term negative implications for US economic growth. Rising demand on networks and constrained supply are pushing networks to their limit. Additional full-power mid-band spectrum must be licensed to enhance network capacity, enable enterprises to innovate and expand their services, and provide users with faster, more reliable, and secure connectivity to boost US global technology leadership. Failing to do so would result in the U.S.

Fixed wireless access has steadily gained popularity in the U.S. over the past four years and now the service has more than 11.5 million subscribers—and that’s just counting the FWA subscribers from the big three nationwide operators. Today, FWA is considered a viable broadband competitor, and its traction with customers has caused many cable operators to lose customers to FWA. 

America’s infrastructure is the foundation on which our national economy, global competitiveness, and quality of life depend. While often taken for granted when it is working properly, every American household or business immediately feels the impact of just one inefficiency or failure in our built environment. Since 1998, ASCE has issued a quadrennial assessment of the United States’ infrastructure networks, known as the Report Card for America’s Infrastructure.

The National Telecommunications and Information Administration (NTIA) has listed expanding affordable, high-quality broadband to every American as an objective in its 20222026 Strategic Plan. However, the combination of standing up new broadband programs and increasing access to broadband is an ongoing, nationwide challenge. The evaluation objective was to identify potential challenges for deploying broadband to underserved and unserved communities.

U.S. adults who regularly get news and information from influencers or content creators are as, if not more, dedicated to staying informed as other Americans. In fact, they turn to organizations more than to individuals and recognize journalism as something distinct from news.

Despite the emergence of new frameworks, guidance, and recommendations to support the overall responsible use of artificial intelligence by public agencies, there is a dearth of guidance on how to decide whether AI should be used in the first place, including how to compare it to other solutions and how to document and communicate that decision-making process to the public. This brief seeks to address this gap by proposing a four-step framework that public administrators can use to help them determine whether to proceed with an AI system for a particular use case: