Research

The vast majority of funding in the immense Infrastructure Investment and Jobs Act is focused on building physical networks to locations where people are unconnected or insufficiently connected. Investments and research have traditionally privileged the wires and poles of broadband infrastructure without accounting for or making explicit the human infrastructure needed to enable digital opportunity.

The Federal Communications Commission's Wireline Competition Bureau adopted the Broadband Serviceable Location Fabric, the most up-to-date and comprehensive source for identifying broadband serviceable locations (BSLs), as the basis it will rely on for generally verifying compliance with high-cost program deployment obligations and for adjusting the location obligations for certain high-cost support mechanisms.

The Federal Communications Commission released the 2024 Communications Marketplace Report on December 31. By law, the FCC must publish a Communications Marketplace Report every two years, assessing the state of competition across the broader communications marketplace.

The recent surge in digital inclusion initiatives at the local, state, and federal levels has sparked increased interest among researchers and policymakers in evaluating their impact on the communities they aim to serve. Further, the growing array of programs and the solutions offered—such as subsidized broadband, digital literacy training, and digital navigation support—provide valuable opportunity to examine how these interventions affect communities and individuals who have historically lacked reliable broadband access or did not consistently use it.

This annual survey offers insights into how rural networks are evolving and highlights the challenges and successes of delivering broadband in less densely populated areas. Highlights include:

We supposedly have a decent handle these days of the number of locations that can buy broadband due to the Federal Communications Commission broadband mapping and data collection effort. While some folks will argue about the accuracy of the FCC's National Broadband Map, we know a lot more than we did just a few years ago. The map is supposed to disclose where internet service providers (ISPs) are capable of serving, but not where they have customers.

The Federal Communications Commission is required to publish a Communications Marketplace Report every two years that assesses the state of competition across the broader communications marketplace. The FCC must evaluate competition to deliver voice, video, audio, and data services among providers of telecommunications, providers of commercial mobile service, multichannel video programming distributors (MVPDs), broadcast stations, providers of satellite communications, Internet service providers (ISPs), and other providers of communications services.  As part of its evaluation, the FCC must

This year, Congress passed a law forcing ByteDance, TikTok’s parent company, to sell the app within a year or face a potential shutdown. However, there is speculation that the incoming Trump administration could reverse the ban, even though the first Trump administration originally raised the idea of a ban, and his potential cabinet picks remain 

The U.S. fiber industry set another record in 2024, marketing fiber to 10.3 million new homes, up from 9.1 million new homes marketed to in 2023, according to data compiled by Michael Render, CEO and principal analyst at RVA LLC. The 10.3 million new homes marketed (as well as the 9.1 million homes from last year) also includes 2nd passings to some homes. In 2024, 8.4 million homes were passed and marketed with fiber for the first time. Fiber broadband is now marketed to 76.5 million U.S.

More than 80% of Canadians have access to fixed broadband networks, but for rural Canadians that figure drops to just 60%. Yet, this gap between who has broadband access and who doesn't is closing in rural areas at a rate nearly three times faster than in urban areas.