Internet/Broadband

Next Century Cities released a playbook on tech-powered civic engagement detailing lessons learned over the past year among its three Benton Next Generation Engagement Award winners: Austin (TX), Louisville (KY) and Raleigh (NC). The Washington, D.C.-based broadband advocacy group wants the guide to serve as a checklist for cities’ future projects. Communities are encouraged to engage all stakeholders in a civic tech project area, collaborate across sectors and have their approach match project function.

Modern technology is helping soldiers push to the limits of their physical capabilities on the battlefield, but advancements in communication and assimilation of data still rely on a 1990s-era legacy premise: a networked connection to a military data center. Today’s battlefields require significant information processing capabilities, such as the sending of images, videos and sensor data, yet extensive data processing and exchange relies on dependable network connections and bandwidth capabilities that don’t always exist. This is a problem the Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency—the Defense Department’s research arm—has grappled with for years, but recent contract awards through its dispersed computing (DCOMP) program may be the first steps the U.S. military takes toward mitigating this problem.

In the spacious corridor of a trendy co-working space on Pittsburgh’s North Side, Michael Shenck runs through a list of all the ways his real estate startup, Ikos, uses the internet each day. “We are collecting a lot of market data to help better inform investors and all of that communication is over the internet, and also how we coordinate with insiders, our gig economy workforce,” Shenck explained. “It’s pretty critical to the flow of our workforce.” Ikos is a year-old business that connects landlords and renters, first virtually and then in-person. Without a fast website to facilitate that communication, Shenck, who is the vice president of engineering, said his company couldn’t operate. He said tech startups like his rely on the concept of net neutrality in order to succeed.

BendBroadband spokeswoman DeAnne Boegli said she’s not sure exactly how the Open Internet Order discourages capital investment by internet service providers. The company’s goal is to build a network with top speeds of 600 megabits per second to 1 gigabit per second, “so people don’t have those issues and can have unfettered access to the internet,” she said. Anyone whose business relies on internet traffic is watching this debate, said Lewis Howell, founder of the Bend startup Hueya.io, which makes software that helps consumers monitor their online privacy. “What they’re wanting to say is, ‘It’s our network,’” Howell said. But broadband is more than one company’s means of delivering cable television or web content, he said. “This is a utility everyone has a right to access freely and openly,” Howell said.

Commissioned by the Cleveland Foundation, this report’s purpose is to guide the Foundation's staff and partners as they strategically determine how best to dedicate resources toward digital literacy, internet access and broad technological empowerment. The Cleveland Foundation’s Digital Excellence Initiative aims to position Greater Cleveland as a leader in digital innovation and access by investing in efforts that align with the five focus areas of the foundation’s Digital Excellence Initiative:
Creating a more connected community
Supporting digital skills development
Improving digital civic engagement
Elevating regional digital leadership
Encouraging technology innovation for social good

Despite the continued proliferation of the internet and new digital devices, many low-income communities still lack internet access. Slightly less than half of all households with incomes under $20,000 reported having internet access in the Census Bureau’s most recent American Community Survey. By comparison, about 93 percent of wealthier households with annual incomes exceeding $75,000 were connected. Places where low-income households are least connected are most common throughout rural regions of the South and Appalachia. Higher costs of living might explain differences in other regions of the country, where housing or utility expenses leave households with little income to spare. Demographics further contribute to regional disparities as families of Hispanic immigrants have lower internet adoption rates, as do heads of households over age 65.

Public interest watchdogs are concerned about a proposed merger that could have big implications for rural broadband as it nears the regulatory finish line. CenturyLink’s $34 billion deal to acquire Level 3 Communications would create a potentially formidable competitor to AT&T in the telecommunications market to handle heavy internet traffic for businesses. But opponents say it would hurt broadband access for rural providers by eliminating access to wholesale rates for critical fiber connections to the internet backbone — the high-speed transmission lines that connect users’ various internet service providers to each other.

Level 3 Communications is the sixth largest provider of fiber in the United States by volume and has a broad footprint, with availability across the country. It’s also, notably, a competitive local exchange carrier (CLEC). If approved, the merger would give CenturyLink, one of the largest incumbents, ownership of Level 3’s valuable fiber assets, which are currently available at wholesale rates — but may not be if they come under CenturyLink’s control.

On August 8, 2017, the Federal Communications Commission launched a new assessment of “whether advanced telecommunications capability is being deployed to all Americans in a reasonable and timely fashion,” (otherwise known as the “706 Report”). This report is long overdue, as the report is supposed to be issued annually, but the last 706 Report was released on January 29, 2016. The Notice of Inquiry (NOI) properly seeks comment on both fixed and mobile broadband connections. It acknowledges that the two technologies have different technical characteristics and limitations, and that broadband providers choose to market their fixed and mobile products in different ways. As Commissioner Clyburn notes in her concurring statement, fixed and mobile services are complements, not substitutes.

While some press accounts suggested that the FCC reached a tentative conclusion to equate the two technologies, it only sought comment on this question. The FCC also sought comment on how the markets for fixed and mobile services differ, and it did not say that mobile broadband access is a replacement for fixed broadband. To be clear, the SHLB Coalition does not believe fixed and mobile services are substitutes. Students cannot complete homework and seniors cannot apply for government services with just smartphones. While smartphones can help bridge the digital divide for individuals, they do not replace the gigabit speeds provided by fiber or fixed wireless technologies that anchor institutions need.

Household internet access via a mobile-only connection increased from 8.86% in 2011 to 20.00% in 2015. This paper uses national data to model the propensity of a mobile-only connection via logistic regressions. An inter-temporal non-linear Blinder-Oaxaca decomposition is then used to determine the driving factors behind this trend. The results show that while changing characteristics over time account for less than 1% of the trend, behavioral relationships changed dramatically as specific groups were much more likely to be adopters of mobile-only in 2015. The primary behavioral relationships leading to increased mobile-only connections are those associated with age (50.55%), race/ethnic background (4.75%), and non-metro status (1.88%). The finding that these demographic groups are becoming more willing to adopt the internet via the mobile-only connection can have important implications for future broadband policy.

Discourse and interest in the digital divide research community is steadily shifting beyond access and adoption to utilization, impact, and outcomes of information and communications technologies (ICTs), particularly the internet. In the United States, studies and surveys conducted by the National Telecommunications and Information Administration (NTIA) indicate increase in internet use in every corner of the country over the last two decades. However, recent surveys on ICT use indicate significant disparities in dimensions of internet use. For example Americans’ use of the internet to pursue e-education, e-health, e-commerce, e-entertainment, and telecommuting has varied significantly – longitudinally as well as geographically. Additionally, internet use habits are rapidly expanding, providing new insights into the emerging internet of things, wearable technologies, and new forms of social media usage. As novel technologies and lifestyles emerge, analysis of new disparities and dimensions of the “usage digital divide” stemming from social, economic, societal, and environmental factors becomes important. This research examines spatial clusters, geographic disparities, and socio-economic dimensions of existing and emerging dimensions of internet use among the 50 U.S. states.