Research

The COVID-19 pandemic exposed a critical lack of digital equity in the United States, particularly in Indian Country. As previous Center for Indian Country Development (CICD) research has shown, before the pandemic households on federally recognized reservations were less likely to have home Internet and faced substantial

The 2024 State EdTech Trends survey and report tracks insights on the top edtech priorities as identified in SETDA’s survey of state policy-makers including state edtech directors, state superintendents and commissioners of education and CIOs. The report includes four key findings:

This annual report on the U.S. Microbusiness Activity Index (MAI) provides an update on microbusinesses, incorporating data up to March 2024. It covers the national, states, metropolitan areas, and counties. Highlights include:

Demand for wireless data continued to skyrocket in 2023, with Americans using more than 100 trillion MBs—enough data for every single U.S. household to watch the first season of House of the Dragon every day for the entire year. 100T MB of data is nearly double the amount of data used just two years ago and represents the largest single-year increase in wireless data ever—26 trillion MBs—a 36% increase over 2022. In fact, Americans used more wireless data in 2023 than they did from 2010 to 2018 combined.

The National Digital Inclusion Alliance's (NDIA) Digital Inclusion Start-Up Manual is intended to provide guidance to organizations looking to increase access and use of technology in disadvantaged communities through digital literacy training, affordable home broadband, affordable devices and tech support. These efforts might take place within a community-based organization, a library, a housing authority, a local government or other community locations.

FarrPoint's International Digital Connectivity Readiness Index (DCRI) measures performance in both digital infrastructure and digital adoption. Overall, the United States ranks joint 2nd in the G7 for Digital Connectivity Readiness. The US ranks 6th in digital infrastructure, leading in 4G and 5G but struggling with broadband and Gigabit coverage. On adoption, it ranks 3rd, excelling in the Digital Economy, innovation and public services but facing challenges with Digital Skills, Security, and affordability. However, the US faces challenges in other aspects of digital adoption.

The Northeast Digital Equity Summit (NDES) convened educators and researchers from land-grant universities across the Northeast in a virtual setting on September 19, 2023. Organized by Penn State Extension, University of Maryland Extension (UME), Cornell Extension, and the Northeast Regional Center for Rural Development (NERCRD), the primary emphasis of the summit was to explore how the inherent characteristics of extension programs make them well-suited for leading collaborative efforts toward achieving localized digital equity.

The West Virginia Department of Economic Development, Office of Broadband (WVDED) has officially launched its Digital Equity Asset Map and Dashboard. The map is meant to show West Virginia residents and practitioners what digital inclusion resources are available throughout the Mountain State. Users can filter entities by county, type of organization, and type of resource provided.

This report aims to address a key security vulnerability associated with the Border Gateway Protocol (BGP)—the protocol that underpins the way information is routed across networks. While there is no single solution to address all internet routing vulnerabilities, the roadmap advocates for the adoption of Resource Public Key Infrastructure (RPKI) as a mature, ready-to-implement approach to mitigate BGP’s vulnerabilities. The Roadmap provides 18 key recommendations to network operators, service providers, and federal agencies. They include:

With home working becoming ubiquitous, along with internet gaming and video streaming, a stable and dependable network is more important than ever. Alongside price, reliability is the key metric driving consumers’ decisions when choosing an internet connection—lightning-fast marketed speeds are irrelevant without a stable connection to use them. This report uses Opensignal’s new Broadband Reliability Experience metric to quantify the real-world experience of our U.S. fixed broadband users. Key findings include: