Monday, September 23, 2019
Headlines Daily Digest
National Tribal Broadband Summit
Don't Miss:
Broadband/Telecom
Education
Wireless
Platforms
Privacy
Media and Elections
Accessibility
Emergency Communications
Lobbying
Research
Policymakers
Stories From Abroad
Broadband
Federal Communications Commission Chairman Ajit Pai spoke to a group trying to get internet access to more people in Kansas. "Bandwidth needs for rural communities are higher than people think," FCC Chairman Ajit Pai said. "There has to be a business case," Chairman Pai said. "There has to be a return on investment. So that, in some cases, requires federal subsidies." "Some people, for example when they think of the internet, they might think, all the person needs to do is to download Netflix," Pai said. "But, if you're on a connected farm, you're creating a lot of data from some of the sensors that are monitoring a cornfield or a soybean field. They need to upload that very quickly. So we're talking a huge amount both downloaded and uploaded. So that means you need to have high capacity broadband networks."
Internet access is a critical concern across the United States. Countless news reports chronicle a trend of states and local areas working to expand broadband Internet for unserved and underserved populations. One assumption driving these efforts is that improved broadband coverage will lead to better economic outcomes. Here’s the complication: Research on broadband doesn’t necessarily confirm that assumption, even though certain pieces of research seem to suggest the case is closed. The literature on the relationship between broadband and the economy often focuses on two types of broadband: rural and municipal. Both types have distinct academic arguments associated with them, though observations about one type can sometimes be applied to the other.
Given the mixed results on the association between broadband and economic growth, what can leaders do as they plan to bring broadband to their communities? Governments must consider the number of people who would receive broadband in a given scenario versus the cost of the effort. Spending taxpayer dollars could be more difficult to justify when fewer people receive service. And broadband adoption must be a “key component” of any government initiative.
A long-standing public policy goal has been ensuring that almost all citizens are connected to some minimum level of communications services. This paper evaluates Comcast’s “voluntary commitment” to introduce a low-income broadband program that Comcast has branded “Internet Essentials (IE).” We use data from the US Census Current Population Survey (CPS) and the National Broadband Map and a differences-in-differences approach to evaluate the program’s effects on subscription rates for eligible households. Between 2011, when the program began, and 2015, broadband adoption by eligible households increased by more among households that lived in areas in which Comcast provided broadband internet service than among households that lived in areas served by other cable providers. Using a difference-in-differences approach, we estimate that about 66 percent of IE subscribers represent true increases in low-income adoption as a result of the program, with the remaining subscribers being households that switched from a competitor and households that would have subscribed as part of a general upward trend in adoption. We find that even among low-income households, broadband demand is relatively inelastic.
Two publications released this week have us thinking about the impact the digital divide has on education, schools, and students. In many schools around the country, teachers might be able to take for granted that their students have access to the internet outside of school. Unfortunately, for too many students, that just isn't true. The resulting "Homework Gap" is expanding inequity.
The Charles Benton Early Career Scholar Committee has awarded Burcu Baykurt the 2019 TPRC Charles Benton Early Career Scholar Award Winner and Jacob Manlove the runner up. Burcu Baykurt wrote (Dis)connecting the Digital City which examines how the connectivity infrastructures of the digital city are laid over uneven terrains and the ways residents react to those changes. Assessing the Need for a Measure of Broadband Adoption Inequality, written by Jacob Manlove, proposes the use of the absolute value index which distinguishes between no mobile use, mobile only, fixed only, and use of both as a measure to study inequality in broadband adoption in contrast to a simple percentage indicator of adoption. This can be helpful for developing state policies based on a more nuanced understanding of broadband access inequalities.
[Adrianne B. Furniss is the Executive Director of the Benton Institute for Broadband & Society]
With Congress inching toward reopening its long-shuttered Office of Technology Assessment, a bipartisan group of lawmakers has introduced legislation to fix what critics say were the office’s flaws back before it was defunded by Newt Gingrich-led Republicans in the 1990s. Sens. Thom Tillis (R-NC) and Mazie Hirono (D-Hawaii) and Reps. Mark Takano (D-CA) and Bill Foster (D-IL) are sponsoring the bill, aimed at addressing complaints that OTA — designed to equip Congress with technical expertise — moved too slowly, was too political, duplicated work being done by other agencies, and failed to serve the research needs of rank-and-file members. The measure would also rename the shop the “Congressional Office of Technology.” Congress's struggles to regulate companies like Google, Facebook and Apple are revving up interest in a rebooted OTA, with the topic even making it onto the presidential campaign trail. Democratic candidate and entrepreneur Andrew Yang was asked whether the federal government is up to the task of acting as a check on Silicon Valley. Nope, said Yang: "We are 25 years behind on technology, and I know this, because we got rid of the Office of Technology Assessment in 1995.”
Benton (www.benton.org) provides the only free, reliable, and non-partisan daily digest that curates and distributes news related to universal broadband, while connecting communications, democracy, and public interest issues. Posted Monday through Friday, this service provides updates on important industry developments, policy issues, and other related news events. While the summaries are factually accurate, their sometimes informal tone may not always represent the tone of the original articles. Headlines are compiled by Kevin Taglang (headlines AT benton DOT org) and Robbie McBeath (rmcbeath AT benton DOT org) — we welcome your comments.
© Benton Institute for Broadband & Society 2019. Redistribution of this email publication — both internally and externally — is encouraged if it includes this message. For subscribe/unsubscribe info email: headlines AT benton DOT org
Kevin Taglang
Executive Editor, Communications-related Headlines
Benton Institute
for Broadband & Society
727 Chicago Avenue
Evanston, IL 60202
847-328-3049
headlines AT benton DOT org
Share this edition:
The Benton Institute for Broadband & Society All Rights Reserved © 2019