Research

In a new report from the Internet Society, a think tank founded by Vint Cerf, authors recommend governments take a “multistakeholder” approach—inviting members of the public and representatives from various industries—to create “consensus policy” surrounding the internet. They could determine what should be censored, how encryption affects national security, and whether citizens maintain their personal freedoms online. That approach is distinct from the “multilateral” approach in which several governments work together, excluding representatives from civil society. “Measures that may be intended to secure cyberspace will increasingly undermine personal rights and freedoms,” the report predicted. “If current trends are any indication, more and more governments will restrict and control Internet use and access through censorship, network shutdowns and other means.”

In filings about the Federal Communications Commission’s forthcoming wireless-competition report, Free Press called out FCC Chairman Ajit Pai for misrepresenting the state of broadband investment following the agency’s 2015 network neutrality ruling.

The FCC is required by statute to compile this annual report to Congress on the state of the wireless industry. The 20th annual report is the first edition to come due during Pai’s chairmanship. The report is on the docket for the FCC’s next monthly meeting, which will take place on Sept. 26. During that meeting, the commissioners will consider and then vote on adoption of the final report. Chairman Pai released the draft of this annual report earlier this month. In a recent speech at an industry conference, Chairman Pai claimed that this draft contains evidence that wireless-industry capital investment declined from 2015 to 2016. He suggested that this decline is due to the FCC’s February 2015 Title II reclassification decision and adoption of open-internet rules.

Free Press sent a letter to Pai condemning the chairman for misusing this report and “once again misleading the public” to advance his “irrational vendetta” against the Net Neutrality rules the FCC put in place during the Obama administration. “The easily verifiable truth is that wireless-industry investments peaked in 2013, as carriers completed the bulk of 4G LTE deployments,” the Free Press letter reads. “Both that peak, and the ongoing decline from it, predate the entire proceeding that led to the 2015 reclassification of broadband as a lightly regulated Title II service. What’s more, this is by no means the only years-long downturn for the wireless sector: Such periods of slower spending are natural — and, in the recent past, have likewise occurred outside of recessions.” The Free Press letter includes detailed analysis that proves that this fluctuating trend is part of a larger pattern of investment that has nothing to do with the rules the FCC adopted to prevent internet-access providers from blocking, throttling or otherwise discriminating against the online communications of internet users. The letter also notes that many previous agency reports on wireless competition specifically caution against misinterpretation of short-term investment data. Yet the draft of Pai’s report provides no such historical context — and no warnings about investment patterns.

In 2013, only 4 million students had access to broadband that provided internet fast enough to allow for digital learning in the classroom. Now, four years later, that number has catapulted to 39.2 million, thanks to the modernization of a federal program and a broad bipartisan coalition of federal and state lawmakers and policymakers dedicated to the cause.

"America made a historic promise to our students in 2013 to connect every school district to high-speed internet," said Evan Marwell, CEO of EducationSuperHighway. "We've made great progress since then,” he said. “However, our work is far from over. It is critical that federal and state leaders, schools, and service providers continue the hard work necessary to close the connectivity gap." But that gap now spans just 6.5 million students and it’s expected to be eliminated by 2020 based on current growth models. Under the Obama administration, in 2014, the Federal Communications Commission voted to modernize its E-Rate program, which provides funding for schools and libraries to connect to the Internet. The commission approved a $1.5 billion boost in funding and set new standards in an effort to expand access, including setting minimum recommended bandwidth levels, requiring fiber connections to every school in order to allow bandwidth to grow over time, and setting up wireless connections in every classroom to support “one-device-per-student” programs.

At a time when scientific information is increasingly at the center of public divides, most Americans say they get science news no more than a couple of times per month, and when they do, most say it is by happenstance rather than intentionally, according to a new study by Pew Research Center.

Overall, about a third, 36 percent, of Americans get science news at least a few times a week, three-in-ten actively seek it out, and a smaller portion, 17 percent, do both. And while Americans are most likely to get their science news from general news outlets and say the news media overall do a good job covering science, they consider a handful of specialty sources – documentaries, science magazines, and science and technology museums – as more likely to get the science facts right.

How can news outlets improve their standing in the eyes of the public? If a study published by Northwestern University in Qatar is any indication, then the key to a higher level of trust might be a lower level of free speech.

Northwestern surveyed seven Middle Eastern countries and found that citizens in six of them ascribe more credibility to their press than Americans do to theirs — by wide margins, in some cases. In the United Arab Emirates, for example, 85 percent of citizens say the media is credible; the rates are 62 percent in Qatar and 59 percent in Saudi Arabia. Only 32 percent of Americans trust the media to report the news fully, fairly and accurately, according to Gallup. While these Middle Eastern credibility ratings sound great, they are attended by brutal restrictions on journalists. Reporters Without Borders rates countries' press freedoms, using such criteria as access to public records, censorship and safety. Out of 180 countries, the United Arab Emirates ranks 119, Qatar ranks 123 and Saudi Arabia ranks 168.

This paper examines the impact of countries' distance between their Internet usage and the world' average of the Internet usage intensity on their integration into the world market of trade in commercial services.

Using an unbalanced panel dataset of 175 countries over the annual period 2000–2013, the empirical analysis indicates that the narrowing of the Internet-related distance would improve countries' integration into the world trade in commercial services market. Furthermore, it helps those countries that are geographically far from the world market to compensate for the adverse effect of this geographical distance on their integration into the world market of trade in commercial services.

The Government Accountability Office was asked to examine factors affecting broadband competition. This report covers (1) selected experts’ and stakeholders’ views on factors affecting broadband competition and (2) how Federal Communications Commission promotes broadband competition and examines consumers’ experience with it.

Selected experts and stakeholders told GAO that infrastructure costs and other factors can limit broadband deployment and the extent of broadband competition. Factors these individuals identified included providers’ costs to deploy antennas, install wires or cables, and obtain permits to access existing infrastructure. Such infrastructure includes utility poles needed for deploying wired components of broadband networks. These costs can limit competition, particularly in non-urban and less populated areas, where providers’ return on investment can be lower due to fewer potential customers. Experts and stakeholders also identified industry consolidation and increasing similarity of fixed and mobile broadband as factors that are likely to affect broadband competition moving forward.

GAO recommends that the FCC should annually solicit and report on stakeholder input regarding (1) its actions to promote broadband competition and (2) how varying levels of broadband deployment affect prices and service quality. FCC concurred with GAO’s recommendations.

More than 39 million students in America now have access to high-speed Internet at school, a 5.1 million student increase over last year. This research shows that 94 percent of school districts nationwide now meet the minimum 100 kilobits per second (kbps) per student goal set by the Federal Communications Commission in 2014. The report confirms that America continues to make extraordinary progress in narrowing the K-12 digital divide. Overall, 39.2 million students, 2.6 million teachers, and 74,000 schools are now achieving the minimum connectivity goal that gives students equal access to digital learning opportunities. However, 6.5 million students are on the other side of the digital divide without access to high-speed Internet. A divide that is particularly wide in the 1,587 rural K-12 schools that don’t yet have the infrastructure necessary to revolutionize the way teachers teach and students learn.

“America made a historic promise to our students in 2013 to connect every school district to high-speed Internet,” said Evan Marwell, CEO of EducationSuperHighway. “We’ve made great progress since then; however, our work is far from over. It is critical that federal and state leaders, schools, and service providers continue the hard work necessary to close the connectivity gap.” Governors and state leaders across the country have taken notice and played a crucial role this year in bringing high-speed learning opportunities to every classroom. Today, a total of 46 governors have committed to upgrading their schools for the 21st century. Taking advantage of E-rate Modernization, governors have allocated nearly $200 million in state matching funds for special construction that can help connect the hardest-to-reach-schools.

The average small rural telecommunications company saw revenues increase in 2016 but profitability declined in comparison with the previous year, according to the latest Telergee Benchmark Study.

The extensive and detailed rural telecommunications economics report is compiled annually by The Telergee Alliance, a group of accounting firms that specialize in rural telecom. The 2017 report is based on financial data from 172 small telcos – a substantial portion of the 800 or so small telcos nationwide. On average, small rural telcos saw revenues increase 2.8 percent between 2015 and 2016, according to the Telergee study. Yet operating income dropped an average of 3.9 percent. The results are not surprising, as telcos’ regulated revenues are flat or in decline, driving the telcos to pursue unregulated lines of business, many of which have “super thin” margins.

In a report published recently in Psychological Science, a team of academics reviewed two decades of research to better understand how to effectively debunk misinformation. In the end, they found eight worthwhile studies, with more than 6,800 participants. Based on the findings of those experiments, the authors offer these broad recommendations for how to expose misinformation:
Limit arguments supporting misinformation
Encourage scrutiny
Present new information
Bonus: Video may work better than text