Research

Recent legislation included big increases in federal funding for the deployment of broadband, which is increasingly critical to daily life, but unavailable in some areas. Our analysis found that thousands more skilled workers will be needed to deploy broadband and 5G funded by recent federal programs. If this work is spread over 10 years, the funding would support about 23,000 additional workers at its peak. A shorter timespan could require even more of them. We found mixed evidence on whether there's a shortage of these workers.

The Lifeline program and the Affordable Connectivity Program (ACP) serve a vital role in providing low-income Americans with affordable access to essential communication services. Between November 21 and December 8, 2022, the National Lifeline Association (NaLA) surveyed more than 60,000 customers who use the Lifeline and/or ACP program about who they are and how they use the programs. Survey results indicate that low-income consumers use Lifeline and/or ACP service to connect to family and to access other government programs, healthcare, jobs and online education.

When the Federal Communications Commission's new broadband maps came out, we were quick to compare the number of unserved locations in the new maps to the number of unserved housing units in the previous Form 477 data. As expected, the number of unserved locations doubled, from 3.6 million to 7.8 million. But that comparison isn’t apples-to-apples.

The National Telecommunications and Information Administration is highlighting a variety of digital equity and inclusion activities occurring in 40 different city and county governments on the Digital Inclusion map on the BroadbandUSA website. The site includes local government digital equity and inclusion websites, leaders, coordinators, resources, and plans.

Could the major telecom operators increase prices on customer bases already reeling from general cost-of-living increases and other economic uncertainty? Executives from AT&T and Verizon both seemed to leave the door open to that possibility, but new research suggested that could be a very risky move. EY issued a report titled, “The top 10 risks in telecommunications,” which identified “Insufficient response to customers during the cost-of-living crisis” as the No.

The Federal Communications Commission's new broadband maps give us a view of what the broadband competition situation is in the United States. We want to answer the question of how many options a household has for broadband service. Using the new maps, and a 100 Mbps download and 20 upload throughput as the threshold for acceptable broadband, 37% of households have access to one offering, 34% have access to two offerings, and 18% have access to three or more offerings. This is slightly more concentration than was present in the most recent Form 477 data.

Institutions that provide essential services, including education, health care, government functions, and the workforce, have a duty to make their services universally accessible. But because of the persistence of the digital divide, these institutions cannot fully integrate and modernize internet-based technologies into their services; doing so would effectively deny service to people who cannot adequately access the internet. As a result, institutions have been unable to fully leverage the benefits of technology to make their services even more effective, efficient, and innovative.

One pandemic-era program demonstrated that Chicago can solve big inequities with a spirit of partnership and the right resources. Since launching in June 2020, Chicago Connected, the country’s most comprehensive internet connectivity program for students,  has served nearly one in three CPS students — more than 100,000 students in 60,000 households. In a new report, Kids First Chicago (K1C) found the connectiv

The inaugural Telco Giants Scorecard reveals that telecommunications companies, despite being gatekeepers of the internet for most of the world, are less transparent overall and more susceptible to government demands than their Big Tech peers. It’s time to renew our scrutiny of these companies and hold them accountable for respecting our rights online. None of the 12 telecommunications companies evaluated earned a passing grade.

It has been just over a year since the Digital Equity Act (DEA) was signed into law as part of the Infrastructure Investment and Jobs Act (IIJA), and the $2.75 billion it provides is a once-in-a-generation opportunity to design systems that will enable true digital equity. Congress and the National Telecommunications and Information Administration outlined specifics for states to include in their digital equity plans.