Research

Mobile data demand is exploding, with aggregate data downloaded quadrupling in the last seven years. New and innovative uses enabled by 5G, as well as the prospect of 6G applications, point towards further increases in expected demand for mobile network capacity.

There are still lots of unanswered questions about the true benefit the $42 billion Broadband Equity, Access, and Deployment (BEAD) program will bestow upon some of the nation's top broadband providers. But a "rough, preliminary estimate" from New Street Research indicates the BEAD opportunity stands to beef up their combined enterprise values by billions of dollars. New Street Research employed a multi-step model to calculate the number of served and unserved homes that can qualify for BEAD subsidies.

Understanding clearly the costs of fiber and other technologies

The Benton Institute for Broadband and Society introduced its inaugural Marjorie & Charles Benton Opportunity Fund Fellows. The six broadband practitioners, advocates, and researchers are leading efforts to close the digital divide and realize a stronger, more equitable, and more just America.

For decades, municipal broadband operations have been subject to a minefield of restrictions and barriers designed to make the prospect of establishing or maintaining a community broadband network costly, difficult, and unsustainable. There are currently 17 states in total that have restrictive legislation against municipal broadband networks in the US. Although no states have managed to remove their restrictions in 2022, 2023 could be the year that things begin to change for states that have historically been opposed to allowing for a public option.

The Institute for Policy & Social Research (IPSR) at the University of Kansas received funding from the Economic Development Administration at the US Department of Commerce under the CARES Act to study broadband access in the state of Kansas. To conduct this study, IPSR examined existing data, fielded our own survey of broadband speeds and access, conducted focus groups, and commissioned a chapter on the digital divide within the state of Kansas.

Telecom carriers and analysts have been talking about lower capital expenditures (capex) for 2023, so it’s no surprise that Dell'Oro Group released a report citing a decline in worldwide telecom spending in 2023. Dell'Oro states that the decline is going to continue for a while.

A new best practice white paper explores micro-trenching, an advantageous fiber broadband deployment method. The report compares micro-trenching amongst other deployment methods as a valuable option in the fiber broadband construction toolkit and it also details the scrutiny that micro-trenching faces, success stories, and best practices.

Our analysis of 2021 American Community Survey (ACS) data shows that the Chicago Connected program helped to more than halve the connectivity gap for Chicago’s school-age children — from roughly 110,000 children in 2018 to roughly 46,000 children by the end of 2021 (19% disconnected in 2018 vs. 8% in 2021). The number of disconnected adults was also reduced in 2021 by 2% (from 15% to 13%) which amounts to a reduction of nearly 30,000 adults in 2021 alone.