Research

Broadband access is an essential social determinant of health, the importance of which was made apparent during the COVID-19 pandemic. We sought to understand disparities in broadband access within cities and identify potential solutions to increase urban access. This was a descriptive secondary analysis using multi-year cross-sectional survey data. Data were obtained from the City Health Dashboard and American Community Survey.

The US wireless and mobile industry spent $11.9 billion building additional capacity and coverage into the nation’s wireless networks in 2022. This does not include spending on spectrum or maintenance and ongoing network operations. In total, network operating expenses for US wireless and mobile networks in 2022 topped $46 billion. Some key statistics:

Prior to the coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) pandemic, adoption of telemedicine was slow and its usage was rare. However, during the pandemic, usage of telemedicine increased dramatically with physicians using a number of telemedicine tools to deliver health services, while limiting patients’ exposure to the virus. Wide use of telemedicine may impact various aspects of health care delivery such as quality, cost, and access to care. Thus, a detailed understanding about the usage of telemedicine is vital to develop better policies associated with health care delivery.

Hundreds of thousands of physician offices, hospitals, and health systems across the US have transitioned from paper-based medical records to health IT that is certified under the Office of the National Coordinator (ONC) Health IT Certification Program. This report highlights the impact that the 21^st Century Cures Act (Cures Act) and its implementation contributed to continued progress toward interoperable access, exchange, and use of electronic health information (EHI).

According to the financial analysts at Evercore, US fiber operators are significantly scaling back their network buildout efforts.

The American Rescue Plan has helped to power one of the strongest and most equitable recoveries on record while making investments which position our nation for economic success in the coming decades. Over 30,000 state, local, Tribal, and territorial governments have received State and Local Fiscal Recovery Funds and made $24.3 billion in critical infrastructure investments in broadband, water, and sewer. Governments have reported budgeting nearly $7.3 billion in SLFRF funds towards broadband.

New polling shows that the Affordable Connectivity Program (ACP) is overwhelmingly popular among Republican, Democratic, and Independent voters alike. A strong, bipartisan majority of voters (78 percent) support continuing the ACP, including 64 percent of Republicans, 70 percent of Independents, and 95 percent of Democrats, according to a national survey of 1,000 registered voters conducted by Public Opinion Strategies and RG Strategies in January 2023. Similar majorities also hold for urban, suburban, and rural households, who all support ACP by 68 percent or more. 

Many cable companies boast about having more fiber than coax in their outside plant, and according to recent research from Omdia, those numbers are expected to dramatically increase over the next decade. “Forty-three percent of MSOs have already deployed PON in their networks,” said Jaimie Lenderman, Principal Analyst and Research Manager at Omdia covering the Broadband Access Intelligence Service. “It’s split between the largest and smallest providers. Middle-sized organizations are expected to deploy PON in the next 12 to 24 months or longer.” 

The 21st Century Cures Act and the rise of telemedicine led to a renewed focus on patient portals. However, portal use disparities persist and are in part driven by limited digital literacy. To address digital disparities in primary care, we implemented an integrated digital health navigator program supporting portal use among patients with type II diabetes. During our pilot, we were able to enroll 121 (30.9%) patients in the portal.

The total projected collected interstate and international end-user revenue base to be used in determining the contribution factor for the Universal Service Fund support mechanisms for the second quarter of calendar year 2023 (2Q2023) is $8,761,742,607.