Research

The lack of broadband in many rural and Tribal communities is widely recognized, but there are also claims of a lack of broadband availability in predominantly Minority and urban communities, sometimes labeled digital redlining or digital discrimination. Motivated by such claims, the bi-partisan Infrastructure Investment and Jobs Act of 2021 (IIJA) includes a specific provision to address digital discrimination and the Federal Communications Commission is currently contemplating formal rules for such.

Analysis demonstrates that philanthropic organizations in the US have given little--less than 1% of overall giving by large foundations--to digital equity funding. Funding barriers may be overcome with greater participation of US institutional philanthropic giving to digital equity. Other key takeaways include:

Which rural minority communities are growing? What are the strategies behind these growth-oriented communities? Answers to these questions are central to this report; we illuminate inspiring leadership regimes and strategic policy models that are drawing in people and jobs to rural minority communities. We capitalize on a wealth of publicly available administrative data to outline these economies and deconstruct trends in employment, business creation, broadband adoption, and the labor force.

As high-speed internet becomes increasingly important as a resource for cardiovascular disease (CVD) prevention and management services, gaps in digital infrastructure may have a detrimental impact on health outcomes. Using national census and the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) data from 2018, researchers evaluated state-level rates of household internet access and age-adjusted cardiac mortality.

The Institute for Local Self-Reliance (ILSR) has created a new dashboard that pulls together a host of information from the Universal Service Administrative Company on where and how the Affordable Connectivity Program (ACP) money is being spent. Located at ACPdashboard.com, this new resource from ILSR includes information local broadband advocates, nonprofits, state legislators, and policymakers need to know about where enrollment efforts and expended funds stand.

The most important decision when designing and building a statewide middle-mile fiber-based network is whether to build a brand new long-distance fiber-optic cable route in areas where none exist, or use strands within an already installed cable via a pre-paid, discounted long-term lease called an IRU. In California for example, its great diversity of population centers, geographic and topographic terrains, weather conditions, and natural hazards greatly influences the presence, or absence, of fiber-based middle-mile infrastructure.

A middle-mile network is a fiber connection consisting of long-haul core backbone routes and regional routes, and last-mile providers—not unlike the transportation model of high-capacity long-haul interstate highways—can be effective in connecting major cities, inland, cities, remote regions, and everything in-between. In this model, an open-access middle-mile network bridges the gap between the global Internet and any last-mile providers that wish to connect to it, who then bridge the remaining gap to their individual local residential and business customers, as well as fire, earthquake, c

This annual report highlights five key areas of impact—Digital Equity, Performance, Sustainability, Economic Impact, and Quality of Life/Personal Productivity—illustrating why the US has begun the largest fiber broadband investment cycle in history.

The Schools, Health & Libraries Broadband (SHLB) Coalition and New America’s Open Technology Institute (OTI) released

The Federal Communications Commission completed its Report on the Future of the Universal Service Fund as required by the Infrastructure Investment and Jobs Act, which instructs the FCC to submit to Congress “a report on options of the Commission for improving its effectiveness in achieving the universal service goals for broadband in light of this Act...and other legislation that addresses those goals.” The Infrastructure Act includes the largest ever federal investment in broadband, totaling approximately $65 billion.