Research

The largest pay-TV providers in the US – representing about 96% of the market – lost about 1,730,000 net video subscribers in Q2 2023, compared to a net loss of about 1,725,000 in Q2 2022. The top pay-TV providers now account for about 71.9 million subscribers – with the top seven cable companies having 35.9 million video subscribers, other traditional pay-TV services having about 22.7 million subscribers, and the top Internet-delivered (vMVPD) pay-TV services having about 13.4 million subscribers. Key findings for the quarter include: 

The Federal Communications Commission's Office of Economics and Analytics (OEA) and the Wireline Competition Bureau (WCB) initiated the urban rate survey for 2024. The information collected in this survey will be used to develop voice and broadband reasonable comparability benchmarks that will be in place in 2024. The FCC will be collecting the rates offered by a random sample of providers of fixed services identified using December 2022 data filed in the FCC Broadband Data Collection (BDC) tool.

As the federal government, along with states, gets ready to make a once-in-a-lifetime investment in broadband infrastructure, the concept of the digital divide remains somewhat the same as it was back in the mid-1990s, when the term was coined.

The largest cable and wireline phone providers and fixed wireless services in the US—representing about 96% of the market—acquired about 840,000 net additional broadband Internet subscribers in Q2 2023, compared to a pro forma gain of about 700,000 subscribers in Q2 2022.

The Wyoming Broadband Office (WBO), part of the Wyoming Business Council, made its draft Digital Access Plan available to the public on July 18, 2023, and is allowing one month for residents to submit their feedback. The draft plan includes a vision for digital equity for the state, a set of goals to activate that vision within Wyoming’s Digital Access program, current assets and barriers, and an implementation plan to achieve the goals and address the barriers identified.

The Infrastructure Investment and Jobs Act directed the National Telecommunications and Information Administration (NTIA) to determine how much each state is to receive in Broadband Equity, Access, and Deployment (BEAD) Program funding based on the number of locations in their state unserved by high-speed internet service. One component in the allocation is a determination of the number of “high cost” unserved locations in each state divided by the nationwide total of high-cost unserved locations. Congress also tasked NTIA with defining what “high-cost areas” are.

Using a combination of public and proprietary data, BroadbandNow has created a comprehensive report on the quality of the internet in all 50 states and Washington (DC).

One of the most critical questions that each State and Territory must tackle in implementing the Broadband Equity, Access, and Deployment (BEAD) program is how to make efficient investments in the most reliable, capable, and sustainable broadband connectivity for those residents and businesses that have been left behind while reaching as many unserved and underserved locations as possible.

The Department of Commerce’s National Telecommunications and Information Administration (NTIA) awarded nearly $5.5 million in the first round of grants from the Public Wireless Supply Chain Innovation Fund. This first round of funding will support research and development and testing activities related to evaluating energy efficiency, measuring performance of interoperable equipment and testing methods for sharing spectrum. The funding totaled $5,482,052 and was awarded to projects at Northe

The Federal Communications Commission's Wireline Competition Bureau (Bureau) released illustrative results for the Enhanced Alternative Connect America Cost Model (Enhanced A-CAM) (v2.6.0) program recently adopted by the FCC. These results utilize three different combinations of per-location funding caps for unserved locations and funding percentages for locations already deployed by the incumbent local exchange carrier (ILEC).