Research

Around the country, local governments are grappling with the challenge of getting quality broadband access to their citizens, but without data about what speeds customers are actually experiencing, making effective policy becomes impossible. Internet speed tests can help inform those policies, and while there are several tests available to users, they are not all the same.

In an effort to expand the use of telecommunications services by low-income Americans, the Federal Communications Commission’s Lifeline program offers subsidies to qualifying low-income households. In recent years, the program has undergone significant reform and more modifications have been proposed.

On July 11, Federal Communications Commission Chairman Ajit Pai released a draft proposal to improve the FCC’s broadband-deployment data-collection rules. These revisions are intended to increase the granularity and precision of the National Broadband Map, a semiannual data-collection effort that began at the National Telecommunications Information Agency (NTIA) in 2010. The full FCC will vote on Chairman Pai’s proposal at its Aug.

There is a growing divide in Internet quality of service (QoS) between developed and developing countries. With a panel data of 160 countries for the years 2008-2016, we examined whether the adoption of more pro-competition regulation can narrow this quality divide. Internet quality of service, measured as average connection speed, increased by three times greater in developed compared to developing countries during the period studied. We found that a unit increase in the pro-competition score increased the average connection speed in developed but not in developing countries.

Reps. Ro Khanna (D-CA), Brian Fitzpatrick (R-PA), Anna Eshoo (D-CA), Peter Welch (D-VT), and Yvette Clarke (D-NY) introduced a bipartisan bill, the Measuring the Economic Impact of Broadband Act, to require the Bureau of Economic Analysis to conduct a study of the effects of broadband deployment and adoption on the U.S. economy. The legislation empowers policymakers to make more informed decisions about broadband, connecting underserved communities and keeping America competitive in a digital world.

Americans have complicated views about the role social media companies should play in removing offensive content from their platforms. A sizable majority of U.S. adults (66%) say social media companies have a responsibility to remove offensive content from their platforms, but just 31% have a great deal or fair amount of confidence in these companies to determine what offensive content should be removed.

Broadband availability data is collected from broadband providers at the census block level, which is the smallest geographic unit used by the Census Bureau for data tabulation. In collecting and reporting these data, it is assumed that if a single home in a census block has access to broadband (however defined), then every home in the census block has broadband.

The Universal Service Administrative Company used airborne drones to measure mobile wireless coverage in Puerto Rico post-Hurricane Maria. USAC’s vendor conducted a total of 20 drone tests in Puerto Rico; one of which was overlapped by a drive test in order to compare relative performance. The remaining 19 drone tests were conducted in impassible areas. Within Puerto Rico, the test evidence suggests that drones are capable of quickly surveying smaller areas, but may not be as useful for surveying larger areas in a cost-effective manner at this time.

Newsroom employment across the US continues to decline, driven primarily by job losses at newspapers. And even though digital-native news outlets have experienced some recent growth in employment, they have added too few newsroom positions to make up for recent losses in the broader industry, according to a Pew Research Center analysis of Bureau of Labor Statistics Occupational Employment Statistics survey data.

Using individual-level Census data this report analyzes the differences in fixed terrestrial broadband subscription rates across occupants of Multi-Tenant Environments (MTEs) and non-MTEs. We find that residential occupants of MTEs are on average slightly less likely to obtain a wireline broadband subscription than residential occupants of non-MTEs.