Research

A new case study report from the Institute for Local Self-Reliance delves into the experiences of four Native Nations — the Coeur d’Alene, the Nez Perce, the Fond du Lac Band of Ojibwe, and the St. Regis Mohawk — as they constructed their own Internet service providers.  The case studies examine the unique challenges Native Nations confront as they seek to build Internet infrastructure and address the digital divide while also retaining the tribal sovereignty that is essential to their identity and heritage.

In order to achieve the goal of universal broadband for everyone in Illinois, broadband must be available and affordable. However, home broadband service is out of reach for many low-income households in Illinois that are unable to afford subscriptions. Therefore, efforts to promote universal broadband should include programs that offer access to affordable broadband service, as well as access to low-cost digital devices and digital literacy training, which have been highlighted as necessary to promote digital inclusion and meaningful broadband adoption.

On Jan 15, the Department of Interior’s (DOI) Indian Affairs released the National Tribal Broadband Strategy (NTBS), a work product of the American Broadband Initiative. Designed as a roadmap for the Federal Government and the private sector, the NTBS highlights the strategic components to broadband deployment and expansion, and the necessary actions needed to spur investment within American Indian and Alaska Native (AI/AN) communities.  The Strategy was developed in collaboration with the White House Council on Native American Affairs (WHCNAA).

As of June 2020, the Federal Communications Commission required consumers nationwide to use the Lifeline National Verifier (Verifier), a centralized process and data system, to check their eligibility for Lifeline, the FCC program that provides discounts on phone and internet service for low-income Americans. The FCC created the Verifier with the stated goals of reducing fraud and costs and improving the consumer experience. But the FCC hasn't made people aware of the Verifier, or provided information tribal governments need to help people use it.

This is the third in our series of reports on the digital divide with Boston Consulting Group, and presents a clear roadmap for closing it once and for all. The report offers new and more granular detail on the root causes of the digital divide, cites work by many other groups in this field, and shows that previous COVID relief efforts have still left millions of kids caught in the gap and have funded mainly short-short-term solutions that are set to expire.

While digital inclusion can be framed as a social justice and equity issue, it can—and should—also be framed as a community and economic development issue. A digitally inclusive community or region ensures that all residents, organizations, and businesses can participate fully in an increasingly digitized community, society, and economy. This report will review a series of 2019 metrics to get a better idea of the state of digital inclusion in Indiana.

OATS, in partnership with the Humana Foundation, for the first time quantifies the size and degree of the digital isolation crisis among seniors in the United States, finding nearly 22 million older Americans continue to lack broadband access at home. Key findings:

A new study conducted by Bento Lobo, Ph.D., head of the Department of Finance and Economics at the Rollins College of Business at the University of Tennessee at Chattanooga, documents $2.69 billion in community benefit during the first ten years since EPB of Chattanooga built Amerca's first Gig-speed community-wide network and used it to establish the nation’s most advanced smart grid power distribution system. Key Community Benefits from Chattanooga’s Advanced Infrastructure:

Exploring the use of an innovative approach to a public-private partnership (PPP) to spur the deployment of broadband and create more resilient telecommunications networks in Puerto Rico. Such a partnership is a critical ingredient of the plan for rebuilding the telecommunications sector of Puerto Rico after the island was devastated by Hurricanes Irma and Maria in September 2017. The proposed partnership also has the potential for enabling the expansion of citizen access to broadband services throughout Puerto Rico.

In the fourth quarter of 2020, many broadband internet service providers introduced or expanded low-priced broadband plans, which the authors define as $60 or less per month, resulting in 70% of Americans having access to low-priced internet at speeds of 25 mbps download / 3 mbps upload and 30% at the higher threshold of 100 mbps download / 25 upload. Ninety-four ISPs added low-priced plans that were not available in Q3. National providers, such as CenturyLink and Xfinity were among them. Just 52% of Americans had access to low-priced plans in the fourth quarter of 2019.