Research

In an era where every click, tap or keystroke leaves a digital trail, Americans remain uneasy and uncertain about their personal data and feel they have little control over how it’s used. This wariness is even ticking up in some areas like government data collection, according to a new Pew Research Center survey of U.S. adults conducted May 15-21, 2023. According to the study, Americans – particularly Republicans – have grown more concerned about how the government uses their data. The public increasingly says they don’t understand what companies are doing with their data.

The Federal Trade Commission has issued its latest report to Congress on protecting older adults, which highlights key trends based on fraud reports by older adults, and the FTC’s multi-pronged efforts to combat the problem through law enforcement actions, rulemaking, and outreach and education programs. The report finds that older adults reported losing more than $1.6 billion to fraud in 2022. The report’s analysis shows that older adults filed the largest number of reports about online frauds—where consumers were first exposed to the fraud via social media, the web, or online ads.

Statewide telehealth use jumped dramatically among low-income Californians covered by Medi-Cal in March 2020, when telehealth visits began to be reimbursed at the same rates as in-person visits. We find comparable trends in California’s community health centers (CHCs)—primary care clinics that serve all comers—for Medi-Cal and undocumented patients. However, telehealth can still pose challenges for those who are uncomfortable with technology or lack English proficiency.

The Nevada Governor's Office of Science, Innovation and Technology (OSIT) is accepting public comment this month on its draft Digital Equity Plan, the state's first statewide-level attempt to eradicate the digital divide. For broadband internet subscriptions, Nevada is slightly above the national rate.

Ookla's Speedtest released its Global Index for the third quarter of 2023. The United States ranked 15th in mobile global performance and 6th for fixed broadband. Fierce reported T-Mobile was in first place in the U.S. with a median 5G download speed of 221.57 Mbps. This slightly increased from the second quarter of 2023, when T-Mobile’s median 5G download speed was 220 Mbps.

Governor Laura Kelly (D-KS) announced the release of the Broadband Equity Access and Deployment (BEAD) Initial Proposal Volume 2. As part of the planning process, the public is invited to submit comments on the planning document.

While limited digital skills and lack of access to computing devices are major contributors to the digital divide, experience in places like public housing in New York City demonstrates that these barriers can be overcome when affordable housing operators find ways to provide residents with reliable internet access. Pilot programs in Massachusetts give us a sense of the resources that will be required to furnish high-speed broadband in affordable housing developments.

The 2023 Broadband Pricing Index (BPI), the fourth installment of USTelecom’s annual report, shows continued good news for broadband consumers, including an 18 percent drop year-over-year in the price of providers’ most popular broadband speed tier (Real BPI-Consumer Choice) and a 6.5 percent drop year-over-year in the price of providers’ fastest speed tier (Real BPI-Speed). Even without accounting for inflation, this pricing trend is in direct contrast to the rising cost of overall goods and services, up nearly 5 percent in a similar one-year period.

Roughly 3 billion citizens remain offline, equating to approximately 40 percent of the global population. Therefore, providing Internet connectivity is an essential part of the United Nations' Sustainable Development Goals (Goal 9). In this paper, a high-resolution global model is developed to evaluate the necessary investment requirements to achieve affordable universal broadband. The results indicate that approximately $418 billion needs to be mobilized to connect all unconnected citizens globally (targeting 40–50 GB/Month per user with 95 percent reliability).

This paper investigates the association between relative mobile broadband penetration (i.e. mobile broadband connections in total mobile connections) and carbon dioxide (CO₂) emissions globally. The study is based on 181 countries for the period 2002–2020. The results indicate an initial increase in CO₂ emissions for a country at an average emission level once mobile broadband is introduced. Possible explanations might be initial investment in network infrastructure and increased consumption of electricity.