Research

Nearly three-quarters of the downloads hitting Microsoft servers from nonmetropolitan counties are so slow they don’t meet the Federal Communications Commission definition of broadband. Microsoft’s county-level data shows a big gap between what the federal government says is available and what people actually use. The main takeaway from this is that accurate data to measure broadband access and use remains elusive.

The Democratic senators running for president share a common feature: They’ve all received congressional campaign donations from the tech or telecom industries.

This report offers an analysis of the past two and a half years of net neutrality enforcement in the European Union. We examine the current situation on the telecom market in Europe with a particular focus on differential pricing practices (e.g. zero-rating). This report aims at informing the debate on the ongoing reform of Europe’s net neutrality framework in light of the new moaile network standard 5G.

The steady loss of local newspapers and journalists across the country contributes to the nation’s political polarization, a new study has found. According to research published in the Journal of Communication, with fewer opportunities to find out about local politicians, citizens are more likely to turn to national sources like cable news and apply their feelings about national politics to people running for the town council or state legislature. The result is much less “split ticket” voting, or people whose ballot includes votes for people of different parties.

The paper argues that the current first-to-market approach to connected technologies -- including Internet of Things devices -- has undermined public trust in these technologies and the internet, jeopardizing both our economy and democracy. To combat this, the paper proposes the creation of a “Security Shield” label to inform purchasers that a product has followed recognized best cybersecurity practices and should be more secure than similar products without such a label.

There was a proliferation of fake news during the 2016 election cycle. Grinberg et al. analyzed Twitter data by matching Twitter accounts to specific voters to determine who was exposed to fake news, who spread fake news, and how fake news interacted with factual news. Fake news accounted for nearly 6% of all news consumption, but it was heavily concentrated—only 1% of users were exposed to 80% of fake news, and 0.1% of users were responsible for sharing 80% of fake news.

Cell carriers claim that you should be able to stream online video on your cellphone almost anywhere in Vermont. But in some places in the state, it's not even possible to make a phone call. 

A majority of Americans believe the news media do not understand people like them, and this feeling is especially common among Republicans. Overall, 58% of US adults feel the news media do not understand people like them, while 40% feel they are understood. Republicans, however, are nearly three times as likely to feel that news organizations don’t understand them (73%) as they are to say they feel understood (25%). By comparison, most Democrats (58%) say they feel understood by the news media, while four-in-ten say they do not.

Allconnect partnered with YouGov to conduct a survey to see why people are making the switch to smartphone-only internet. According to our research, one of the most common reasons for using a smartphone instead of traditional internet service is cost. Our survey found that of the 11 percent of U.S. adults only using a smartphone to connect to the internet at home, 36 percent did so because traditional internet coverage was too expensive. A majority of our smartphone-only internet participants reported having both an income level under $40,000 and no college education.

A guide for communities that are seeking solutions to connect residents to broadband. The toolkit acts as a comprehensive first-stop resource for community leaders by outlining the most important considerations and action steps for communities beginning broadband expansion projects. These “building blocks” for a successful project are broken down into clear, concise sections that are presented in chronological order, with the most fundamental ingredients first and more nuanced considerations later.