Research

In 2019, the Vermont Department of Public Service found that nearly a quarter of Vermont addresses lacked service that met the then federal benchmarks for broadband speeds (25/3 megabits per second, or Mbps). The COVID-19 pandemic only underscored the urgent need in a state that has consistently ranked near the bottom of connectivity comparisons over the past decade. Vermonters saw a lack of interest from private providers to invest in the sparsely populated rural state and recognized that communities needed to address the problem themselves.

The National Telecommunications and Information Administration's (NTIA) Office of Minority Broadband Initiatives (OMBI) has released its Annual Report for 2023.

The Federal Communications Commission's Office of Economics and Analytics released data related to the price, subscription rates, and plan characteristics of the internet service offerings of participating providers in the Affordable Connectivity Program (ACP), as required by the Infrastructure Investment and Jobs Act.  These data were collected through the ACP Transparency Data Collection and are available for download on the FCC’s website at https://www.fcc.gov/affordable-connectivity-program.

Can you imagine a future where everyone relies solely on their cellular connection, and they don’t subscribe to a fixed broadband connection at all? Currently, the U.S. government is undertaking a big push to get everyone in the country connected to fiber broadband to close the digital divide. But ironically, a research group from the U.K.

On behalf of Free Press, the African American Research Collaborative (AARC) and BSP Research (BSP) completed a survey of 3,000 American adults to better understand how Americans use media and technology to gain information, how they deal with misinformation and safety online, what privacy concerns they have about online platforms, what they believe are appropriate roles in content moderation, and whether they perceive a need for more independent news sources in the current media and political environment. Key findings included:

Through the Office of Minority Broadband Initiatives (OMBI), National Telecommunications and Information Administration (NTIA) directly addresses the lack of high-speed Internet access, connectivity, adoption, and equity at our nation’s Historically Black Colleges and Universities (HBCUs), Tribal Colleges and Universities (TCUs), and Minority Serving Institutions (MSIs). OMBI works through these anchor institutions to impact their surrounding anchor communities.

Developing a common and comprehensive factual understanding about how we use, need, and could potentially expand access to spectrum is critical to meet the Nation’s diverse spectrum requirements while also maintaining trust in the process.  It’s core to the National Spectrum Strategy's study-first approach to building a spectrum pipeline. For the Dynamic Spectrum Sharing (DSS) demonstration, the Department of Defense relaunched Partnering to Advance Trusted and Holistic Spectrum Solutions (PATHSS) to engage key stakeholders.

The 5G revolution is in full swing as consumers perceive significant improvement in both the wireless phone service they receive and their chosen mobile devices. The American Customer Satisfaction Index (ACSI) report covers three categories of wireless phone service providers—mobile network operators (MNOs), fullservice mobile virtual network operators (MVNOs), and value MVNOs—as well as cell phone manufacturers. ACSI scores are reported on a 0 to 100 scale. Key takeaways include:

The Federal Communications Commission recently released the 4th version of the National Broadband Map, with data as of December 2023. At a high level, the trend continues of fewer and fewer unserved and underserved locations: in the previous version, 10.1 million locations were unserved or unserved. Now, with six months more data, we’re down to 8.8 million locations needing better broadband service.

The looming expiration of the Affordable Connectivity Program could mean the end of high-speed internet access for just under 1 million low-income households in New York City, a new analysis from the Center for an Urban Future shows. The new analysis shows that the federal subsidy program was most popular in East Harlem, a wide swath of the South Bronx, and Long Island City, which contains the country's largest public housing complex in the country.