Research in Action

We build knowledge by providing a body of research and best practices to guide our field’s work.

Marjorie & Charles Benton Opportunity Fund

We launched the fund in honor of the lifelong commitments and contributions of Marjorie and the late Charles to support a stronger, more equitable, and more just America.

The Benton Institute for Broadband & Society welcomes fellowship applications to support a new generation of broadband scholars, practitioners, and advocates.

The 2024-25 call is still open. Applications are due September 15th, 2024.

Learn More Here

Inaugural Fellowships

Understanding What Makes Broadband Champions
Dr. Pierrette Renee Dagg, Director of Research at Merit Network/University of Michigan

The Digital Skills Journey of Underserved Women
Norma Fernandez, CEO, EveryoneOn

Building Safety into Digital Inclusion Efforts: Risks and Opportunities in the IIJA’s Digital Equity Act
Greta Byrum, Principal, Broadband and Digital Equity, HR&A Advisors

Creating a Culture of Consent for Our Digital Future: A Conversation with Tawana Petty
Ever Bussey, March 6, 2024
Brief on Forthcoming Report: Digital Safety & Privacy in Ongoing Broadband Investment
Greta Byrum + Ever Bussey, December 18, 2023

Impact of subsidized broadband on historically marginalized communities
Dr. Erezi Ogbo, Assistant Professor, North Carolina Central University

Evaluating a digital health navigator program in Eastern Massachusetts
Dr. Jorge, Rodriguez, Clinician-investigator, Brigham and Women’s Hospital and Harvard Medical School

A system-wide approach to digital equity: the Digital Access Coordinator program in primary care (July 2024 Academic Article)

Documenting pilot hybrid fiber-mesh network in affordable housing developments in the Bronx and Upper Manhattan
Dave Seliger, Chief Digital Equity Officer, New York City Department of Housing Preservation and Development (HPD)

Equitable Broadband in Urban America Research Group

The Equitable Broadband in Urban America Research Group is a multi-city, multi-methods project that will offer actionable insights into how broadband in urban America can be improved. Researchers will explore how state and federal policymakers, local governments, and digital equity champions can continue to build digital equity in these communities. Research teams in Chicago, New York, Philadelphia, San Antonio, and Seattle will delve into the specific dynamics and challenges to reaching universal broadband and digital equity in their cities.

Learn more here.

Policies, Plans, and Promises Research Group

The Policies, Plans, and Promises Research Group will conduct comparative policy analyses to understand how states are approaching specific issues critical to ensuring equitable broadband. The first two projects will focus on community anchor institutions and tribal broadband.

Learn more here.

Human Infrastructure of Broadband

The Benton Institute for Broadband & Society (in partnership with the American Library Association, METRO’s Digital Equity Research Center, and National Digital Inclusion Alliance) is researching the work of people who help connect others to broadband. Whether they are called librarians, digital stewards, or digital navigators, they perform a wide range of activities like helping people enroll in low-cost broadband plans, making low-cost computers available, providing digital skills training or helping people use digital services like telehealth.

If your organization works on these or related issues, please take our survey! The data you provide will help us better understand what you do, and will contribute to a report that will recommend strategies to sustain this work beyond the current Digital Equity Act investment.

The survey is available here. Deadline: May 24, 2024. For questions, you can email: research@benton.org.

Understanding Broadband Affordability

The Affordable Connectivity Program Enrollment Performance Tool
Tool to help any community answer the question: “How are Affordable Connectivity Program sign-ups going?”

Leaving Money on the Table: The ACP's Expiration Means Billions in Lost Savings
John Horrigan, July 24, 2024

The Affordable Connectivity Program Creates Benefits that Far Outweigh the Program's Costs
John Horrigan, March 11, 2024

Are We There Yet? Affordability, Adoption, Equity, and the United States’s Universal Broadband Goals
John Horrigan, December 20, 2023

ACP Uptake is Strongest in Places Where It's Needed Most
John Horrigan, December 18, 2023

Broadband Benefit Programs are Helping to Close the Digital Divide
John Horrigan, November 29, 2022

Reimagining Lifeline: Universal Service, Affordability, and Connectivity
John Horrigan, February 22, 2022

Prioritizing Digital Equity

Visions of Digital Equity
Participatory research project that proposes Ten Principles for Digital Equity Visions to help guide both the process and resulting visions of digital equity.

The Digital Equity Action Research (DEAR) Fellowship: A Participatory Action Research Project
July 12, 2022