Driven in part by video conferencing, broadband usage spiked to a record high on Easter Sunday (April 12), according to data from OpenVault. Easter Sunday downstream consumption hit 16.3 GB per subscriber, which marked an increase of almost 16% over the previous Sunday (14.1 GB) and of 37.9% over March 1 (11.8 GB), the latter of which was before COVID-19 social distancing measures started to take effect. OpenVault said upstream usage per subscriber on Easter Sunday was 0.97 GB, up 18.6% over the previous Sunday upstream high of 0.81 GB on April 5 and 51.7% over the 0.64 GB on March 1.

Charter Communications added 119,000 new internet subscribers in March. Charter is offering free internet access for 60 days during the coronavirus pandemic, so it remains to be seen how many of those new subscribers will stick with it after the free access ends.  Aside of those net additions, Charter said in its filing that paying net adds also increased in March compared to the same month a year ago.

The lack of affordable residential broadband reflects a failure of US broadband policy. The National Broadband Plan of 2010 called for ubiquitous, affordable, high-speed broadband for all by the year 2020. Depending on which measure you use, the U.S. has fallen short by 10% to 50%. We are now suffering the consequences – residential broadband is often slow, expensive, and not universally available.

This paper measures the role of the diffusion of high-speed Internet on an individual's ability to self-isolate during a global pandemic. We use data that tracks 20 million mobile devices and their movements across physical locations, and whether the mobile devices leave their homes that day. We show that while income is correlated with differences in the ability to stay at home, the unequal diffusion of high-speed Internet in homes across regions drives much of this observed income effect. We examine compliance with state-level directives to avoid leaving your home.

The CARES Act, which addresses the economic impact of the COVID-19 pandemic, has allocated an additional $100 million towards the US Department of Agriculture ReConnect rural broadband funding program. USDA has announced that denied ReConnect grant applicants can now reapply for this new funding with priority access. The additional funding has been allocated as grants to rural broadband providers to “…prevent, prepare for, and respond to the coronavirus.” USDA is setting this $100 million aside, making it available until September 30, 2021.

The current global response to COVID-19 would not have been possible without telecommunications. But we need more innovation in telecommunications to build the medical infrastructure we need to deal with pandemics. society will need tools to better prepare for future pandemics that can arrive more frequently and be even more deadly than COVID-19. Possible ideas include:

A bipartisan group of lawmakers is circulating a draft letter to be sent to the White House requesting additional relief targeted specifically at local newsrooms. The letter asks President Trump to:

On April 7, the Joint Center convened a panel of experts and key stakeholders for an online policy forum with Federal Communications Commissioner Geoffrey Starks to discuss the concept of a “connectivity stimulus” to ensure that people in all communities in the United States are connected and have access to online education and economic opportunities during and following the COVID-19 crisis.

As we wrap our heads around the new normal of sheltering in place and trying to care for those in our communities that are truly devastated by COVID-19, the technologies that connect us – from the internet to wireless to GPS – are now the first line of contact and defense for nearly everything we do. Information and communications technologies have created a remarkable ability to connect, inform, work remotely and innovate. While these capabilities benefit the world in a wide range of ways, their benefits are not distributed equally.

Altice USA said it is extending its free broadband service to students in its service territory until June 30, 2020. The company also has been partnering with school districts in the New York Tri-state area to offer its Student WiFi product at no cost for 60 days, a program that provides students who have school-issued devices the ability to use the Optimum WiFi Hotspot Network to access their school’s network and resources from home if they do not have dedicated Internet access. To date, Altice USA has partnered with more than 100 school districts and connected more than 240,000 student de