Using an Index to Target Broadband Subsidies

The Technology Policy Institute's Broadband Connectivity Index (BCI) built into the TPI Broadband Map is derived using a principal components analysis that explicitly takes into account many factors of access to broadband. The index can help policymakers prioritize areas for buildout (the “where”), while the components of the index can help identify the type of assistance (the “what”) that might be most useful. Here, TPI uses Florida to demonstrate how a connectivity index can be useful. This example is not intended to tell policymakers anything they don’t already know about their counties; rather, TPI shows how multiple datasets can be combined to yield new insights with a method that generates a comprehensive snapshot of connectivity data through the development of a Broadband Connectivity Index. The states may find it useful to take a similar approach at smaller geographic levels that takes into account a state’s own data to most effectively spend the resources available to it. Access to connectivity and the digital divide are multi-faceted policy problems that require multi-faceted analytical methods. The Broadband Connectivity Index may be a powerful approach to integrate what we know in separate datasets to better focus the priorities and attention of state officials with limited time and the important task at hand to fund broadband infrastructure projects in their local districts.