Research

Some 15% of home broadband users in the US say they have had trouble paying for their high-speed internet service during the coronavirus outbreak. That includes 34% of those with household incomes of less than $30,000 a year. A quarter of home broadband users with annual household incomes ranging from $30,000 to just under $50,000 say they have had trouble doing so in the pandemic, as have roughly one-in-ten (8%) with household incomes ranging from $50,000 to $74,999. There are also differences by Americans’ educational attainment.

Smartphone ownership (85%) and home broadband subscriptions (77%) have increased among American adults since 2019 – from 81% and 73% respectively. Though modest, both increases are statistically significant and come at a time when a majority of Americans say the internet has been important to them personally. And 91% of adults report having at least one of these technologies. A Pew Research Center survey also finds that some Americans have difficulties when trying to go online.

Although data usage moderated in Q1 2021 after pandemic-fueled rapid growth in 2020, subscribers continued to adapt to the new broadband environment by embracing faster speeds. Almost one-tenth (9.8%) of all subscribers were provisioned for gigabit speeds at the end of Q1, a year-over-year increase of 261% from the 1Q20 figure of 3.8% and a 15% increase from the 8.5% adoption rate in 4Q20. Over the past two quarters the percentage of subscribers provisioned for gigabit-speed service has risen 75%, from 5.6% in 3Q20.

Federal agencies faced unprecedented challenges responding to 2017's Hurricane Maria, which caused extensive damage in Puerto Rico and the US Virgin Islands. We found unclear federal guidance on the Federal Communications Commission's role in disaster response, which could have contributed to confusion and delays.

Internet access for Americans has taken on new urgency since the pandemic. Prior to it, many people without a home broadband connection could manage, perhaps using a smartphone for web surfing or taking a computer to the library to use Wi-Fi for more data-intensive applications. But the pandemic exposed the limits of wireless data plans for schoolwork or working from home, as well as the severe consequences of having limited or no access to the internet at home.

A look at the obstacles and viable solutions for improving financial inclusion, providing access to bank accounts to the unbanked population in the United States, which currently represents approximately 6% of US households, and for reducing utilization of high-cost non-bank financial products and services. The report concludes that instead of establishing a large, duplicative and potentially expensive banking infrastructure to create bank accounts through the Federal Reserve or the U.S.

There is an ongoing need to improve broadband data collections with community-level perspectives, affordability metrics, and adoption rates. Inaccurate federal broadband mapping data impacts broadband deployment efforts throughout the United States states and its territories. Using Federal Communications Commission data, state mapping, and submissions from local leaders, this report provides a state-by-state review of broadband access.

Measuring Library Broadband Networks for the National Digital Platform, is a research grant from by the Institute of Museum and Library Services (IMLS) National Leadership Grant for Libraries program (award #LG-71-18-0110-18). The research is led by Dr.

This report identifies solutions and best practices to accelerate internet adoption through sponsored-service programs. These recommendations are critical to achieving educational equity and minimizing the risks of the digital divide—including income loss and economic exclusion—for the duration of the pandemic and beyond. As the government pursues additional education and low-income-support programs, the lessons from sponsored-service programs are applicable more broadly.

In 2020, we manually checked availability of more than 11,000 addresses using Federal Communications Commission Form 477 data as the “source of truth.” Based on the results, we estimated that 42 million Americans do not have the ability to purchase broadband internet. In 2021, we expanded our study, manually checking availability of terrestrial broadband internet (wired or fixed wireless) for more than 58,000 addresses. In all, we checked more than 110,000 address-provider combinations using the FCC Form 477 data as the “source of truth”.