April 2020

Spotty broadband is robbing students of their education during COVID-19

5G could help solve the last-mile problem by bringing high-speed internet from the fiber backbone to the home. This hybrid solution could be a more realistic approach to connecting some areas of the country. However, the effort might still remain financially prohibitive for some providers, which might result in the need for the government to step in and subsidize part of the effort.

NCTA: Peak Broadband Traffic Growth Plateaus

In the fourth week of its COVID-19 Internet Dashboard, NCTA-the Internet & Television Association said that peak broadband growth, both downstream and up, has plateaued.

Is the $20 Billion RDOF Budget Big Enough? Expert Panel Says Yes, Though Some May Disagree

Is the $20 billion budget allocated by the Federal Communications Commission for the Rural Digital Opportunity Fund (RDOF) enough to meet rural broadband deployment goals?

Internet Speed Analysis: Rural, Top 200 Cities April 12th – 18th

Our two most recent reports seemed to indicate that networks were slowly adjusting to the newfound demand being placed on them, but this week, these improvements have, in some cases, slowed to a crawl:

How to reach students without internet access during coronavirus? Schools get creative

As the coronavirus crisis forces schools across the country to grapple with the challenges of providing remote learning, many schools and districts have had to get creative with low-tech forms of instruction and delivery that don’t require internet connections or digital devices. In Arkansas, where 23 percent of households lack internet service, and schools will be shut for the remain

Getting free internet is hard for poor students despite provider promises, survey finds

Despite promises of help, families in the low-income neighborhoods of Watts, Boyle Heights and South Los Angeles have struggled to get online, with at least 16% of students lacking basic internet access, according to a survey of public school families in those communities released by the nonprofit Partnership for Los Angeles Schools. Many more students likely lack the high-speed internet connection needed for regular online academic work, according to the organization, which manages 18 L.A.