Research

The main objective of this report is to increase awareness of the state of broadband availability in the nine counties that are part of the Southeastern Indiana Regional Planning Council (SIRPC) region and its implications.

The Consortium for School Network issued a new report that identifies the top five technology developments to enhance teaching and learning: Mobile Devices; Blended Learning; Cloud Infrastructure; Extended Reality; and Analytics and Adaptive Technologies. These "Tech Enablers" are tools that support smoother leaps over the hurdles and expansive changes in global K-12 education.  

Americans used 82% more mobile data in 2018 than in 2017, as results of annual survey showed an increase in wireless across nearly every metric, reflecting unprecedented consumer demand. Key findings:

The Broadband Interagency Coordination Act of 2019 (S.1294) would require the Federal Communication Commission, Department of Agriculture, and the National Telecommunications and Information Administration to enter into an interagency agreement to coordinate how federal funding for the deployment of broadband internet technologies is distributed. The agreement would cover data and information sharing among those agencies.

Large majorities say the tone and nature of political debate in the US has become more negative in recent years – as well as less respectful, less fact-based and less substantive. One takeaway: By a wide margin (66% to 32%), more people say social media companies have a responsibility to remove offensive content from their platforms than say they do not have this responsibility. But just 31% have a great deal or fair amount of confidence in these companies to determine what offensive content should be removed.

The amount of time that Americans ages 60 and older spend on their TVs, computers, tablets or other electronic devices has risen almost half an hour per day over the past decade, according to a Pew Research Center analysis of Bureau of Labor Statistics data, even as screen time among younger people has more or less held steady. Those 60 and older – a group increasingly populated by aging Baby Boomers – now spend more than half of their daily leisure time, four hours and 16 minutes, in front of screens, mostly watching TV or videos.

Public libraries have historically positioned themselves as pillars of information and inclusion in society. Free, available to all, with materials in multiple languages and formats, libraries are possibly the most inclusive public institution.

As the share of Americans who say they own a smartphone has increased dramatically over the past decade – from 35% in 2011 to 81% in 2019 – a new Pew Research Center survey finds that the way many people choose to go online is markedly different than in previous years. Some highlights:

Pole attachment rental rates are a fraction of the overall cost to build broadband systems in rural areas. Rather, the major impediments to rural broadband development are low population densities, high capital costs and other major operating expenses in rural areas. Because electric cooperatives are led by and belong to the communities they serve, they are keenly familiar with these challenges.

Over the last decade or so, access to broadband services has become increasingly important. While many in the UK already benefit from the provision of broadband, some, especially those located in more rural and remote areas, do not – they may not be able to access the Internet and when they do, their connection and consumer experience may be poor. After trying to resolve this through a stream of different initiatives, the UK government announced a broadband universal service obligation (USO) of 10 Mbps in late 2015.