Research

After the Federal Communications Commission received nearly 24 million comments in the course of just one rulemaking proceeding in 2017 and its website crashed due to the volume of comments submitted simultaneously, the Permanent Subcommittee on Investigations initiated a review of federal commenting systems to understand their flaws and develop recommendations to improve them. The Subcommittee  found:

In 221 large and medium-size US cities, according to the latest data from the US Census, at least 30% of all households still lacked a wireline broadband connection in 2018. They are NDIA’s Worst Connected Cities of 2018. The 2018 American Community Survey One Year Estimates (ACS), released by the US Census in September 2019, include 2018 household Internet access data for 623 US cities and “Census designated places” with populations of 65,000 or more. NDIA has ranked all 623 of these communities by:

The Federal Communications Commission initiates its annual review and solicits comments and information to help guide the analysis. The FCC encourages individual consumers, broadband providers, consumer advocates, policy institutes, governmental entities, and other interested parties to provide comments. The information will help ensure that FCC broadband policies are well-informed and backed by sound data analysis as the agency strives to close the digital divide and encourage the deployment of advanced telecommunications capability to all Americans in a reasonable and timely fashion.

Ninety-nine percent of America’s schools now have high-speed broadband connections capable of providing enough bandwidth to enable their students and teachers to use technology in the classroom. 46.3 million students and 2.8 million teachers in 83,000 schools have the Internet access they need for digital learning. This success is due to the collaborative effort of governors in all 50 states along with federal policymakers, service providers and school districts.

The Broadband Deployment Accuracy and Technological Availability Act (S. 1822) would require the Federal Communications Commission to collect detailed data twice a year on the availability of broadband internet access services. That data would be reported by providers of those broadband services. Under the bill, the FCC would establish and maintain a comprehensive database and create detailed and publicly available broadband coverage maps.

Federal data continues to show tribal lands are the least connected areas of the country. This survey found that residents on tribal lands are predominantly using smartphones to access the internet, while many are also accessing it through public Wi-Fi or at a friend/relative’s house. However, the data should not be interpreted or used to defend “mobile only” as the singular solution to providing internet service. In this study 50% of respondents stated that their internet use was limited because they did not have enough data in their cell phone plan.

Despite the growing popularity of connected devices in the home, including smart devices, streaming media players, and smart TVs, 31 percent of US households do not currently have a broadband connection (25Mbps per second download speed or greater). This equates to roughly 100 million consumers, totaling nearly one-third of the U.S.

We are in dire need of universal fiber plans. Major telecom carriers such as AT&T and Verizon have discontinued their fiber-to-the-home efforts, leaving most people facing expensive cable monopolies for the future. While much of the Internet infrastructure has already transitioned to fiber, a supermajority of households and businesses across the country still have slow and outdated connections.

As consolidation in the US residential broadband market continues, there is concern that that Internet Service Providers (ISPs) are “cherry-picking” areas for upgrades to fast broadband services.  This policy brief examines this question for Los Angeles (LA) County during the 2014-17 period. In particular, it probes for evidence that ISPs are neglecting investments in low-income areas and communities of color.

Rep Antonio Delgado (D-NY-19) announced a package of legislation aimed at addressing flawed broadband mapping practices and increasing speed standards in rural communities. Additionally, one of Rep. Delgado’s proposals would empower local communities to accurately assess who has access to broadband and at what speeds and who has been left behind by the digital divide. The legislative package is comprised of two bills that empower communities to improve flawed broadband mapping procedures.