Impacts of the USDA Community Connect broadband program on broadband speeds in rural areas

This study investigates the impacts of 23 US Department of Agriculture Community Connect grant projects approved in fiscal years 2017–2019 on measured broadband download and upload speeds during 2019–2022 using program data, Ookla Speedtest data, and other data. We find that these projects had a positive impact on upload speed but not download speed, increasing upload speeds in project areas by an average of about 28 percent across the study periods. We find larger impacts on upload speed of projects that supported fiber-to-the-household than other projects and larger impacts in some geographic regions. Based on the preferred model results, we estimate that the program cost of increasing measured upload speed through these Community Connect projects averaged about $1300 per Mbps per household.