Data & Mapping

The National Hispanic Media Coalition (NHMC)'s policy team came together to attempt to uncover the real impact of the Emergency Broadband Benefit (EBB) program for eligible Latinx households. The NHMC conducted their analysis using 11 states chosen based on their significant Latinx populations: Arizona, California, Florida, Illinois, Maryland, Nevada, New Jersey, New Mexico, New York, Pennsylvania, Texas. The NHMC published their findings along with recommendations for federal agencies to boost Latinx enrollment in broadband subsidy programs. Major findings include:

If you’d like a more honest assessment of whether AT&T, T-Mobile or Verizon Wireless – or none of the above – will offer decent connectivity, you should seek an outside opinion instead of consulting the carriers' coverage maps. Some resources to do so are:

Opensignal conducted a comprehensive analysis of smartphone users' 5G mobile experience across the US. Major findings include:

Online businesses and platform work can create the impression that the digital economy is ephemeral and placeless. But the digital economy is experienced locally, and its effects are spatial. Measuring them requires better community-level data on economic activities online. While new government data measures broadband subscriptions down to neighborhoods, existing public data do not measure how broadband is used in local communities, and whether this digital activity affects economic outcomes.

Over five million households have enrolled in the Emergency Broadband Benefit Program since its launch in mid-May. The Federal Communications Commission released more granular enrollment data to inform its evolving awareness efforts, increase transparency in the program, and empower its outreach partners to better target awareness and enrollment efforts.

Throughout the COVID-19 pandemic in our country, millions of Americans cannot connect to the internet because they can’t afford to, preventing them from going to school, working, accessing government benefits and connecting with friends and family. To remedy this problem, Congress created the Emergency Broadband Benefit (EBB), which offers low-income consumers a $50 discount on their internet bills.

The Senate’s bipartisan infrastructure bill makes a $42.5 billion bet that the government will overcome an obstacle that has long plagued efforts to connect most Americans to the internet: notoriously inaccurate maps showing where they can get a signal – and where they can’t. That’s the amount of grant funding that the legislation would provide to states to fund broadband projects in areas currently considered unserved or underserved. To qualify, proposals would have to comply with new broadband maps drawn by the Federal Communications Commission.

People involved in the deployment of fiber in the United States are getting pretty excited about the potential $65 billion for broadband in the bipartisan infrastructure bill. The National Telecommunications and Information Administration (NTIA) will develop the program to manage and dispense the funding, with consultation from the Federal Communications Commission.

Under the Senate infrastructure bill, the National Telecommunications and Information Administration (NTIA) would distribute $42.5 billion in new broadband subsidies through grants to eligible states. Local authorities would then competitively award that money to broadband service and infrastructure providers.

Texas Comptroller Glenn Hegar announced the creation of a Broadband Development Office (BDO), which will award grants and loans and provide other incentives in the interest of expanding access to broadband in underserved areas.