Slow Internet? Find Out What Side of the Digital Divide You’re On

Does your neighborhood pay more money for slower internet compared to neighborhoods across town? This step-by-step guide helps you answer that question and more. All you need is a computer, a Google account, and (yes) internet access. The steps are as follows:

1. Pick a geographical area and a target: Determine where you want to analyze internet plans. This could be any town, city, or county. Once you’ve picked a place, you can figure out what broadband providers serve in that area. BroadbandNow is a website allowing you to search for providers operating in any zip code. Try searching various zip codes in the area to ensure you’re capturing all the possible broadband providers.
2. Generate some random addresses: To gather data on what internet plans are offered in the area you selected, you need to get a list of real addresses in that area. To conduct your research fairly, you’ll want to get and use a random sample of addresses, because, in addition to other benefits, it minimizes bias.
3. Put everything into a spreadsheet and format it: You’ll need to properly format the spreadsheet of addresses you just downloaded and pull in socioeconomic data for the analysis you’re about to do. You’ll perform these steps in Google Sheets (but you can move to Microsoft Excel afterward, if you prefer).
4. Get internet plan data: You’ll collect this data by hand. Go to the website of the broadband provider you’re interested in and find where you can search for internet offers by address. Then enter each address from your spreadsheet and record details about the plans offered.
5. Analyze the results: With your hand-collected internet offers handy, you can start your analysis. Whatever you’re interested in testing—whether it is speed, price, value, or availability, you can test for disparities.
6. Share what you found: Once your data is complete, find a place to publicly share the results and your methodology. We suggest hosting the underlying data (internet plans and any screenshots) on GitHub, Google Drive, a public Google Sheet, or on Big Local News.