Research

The recent growth in the use of telehealth has facilitated new and expanded access to care for patients, while also raising questions for healthcare providers about laws and regulations regarding payment, use, and delivery of services. This issue brief is the third in a series that aims to address broadband barriers in healthcare, with the first brief exploring why broadband is a ‘super’ social determinant of health and the second brief assessing funding opportunities to improve access to care via broadband-enabled technologies.

This study uses difference-in-differences models to evaluate the impact of early social media use on academic performance among children aged 7–16 years. A dataset comprising 5,227 students from northern Italy was constructed by merging data from a questionnaire on lifetime digital media habits with longitudinal standardized test scores in Italian, English, and mathematics. Participants who created a personal social media account in 6th, 7th or 8th grade were separately matched with late adopters who initiated their first social media account in the 9th grade or later.

Almost every day, there is a new story about how OpenAI, Anthropic, and Meta are losing control of the AI technology you are developing, with potentially cataclysmic results. We recently learned, frighteningly, that AI has been used for the first time ever to create new viruses. As you know, this type of development, in the wrong hands, could lead to new bioweapons that result in the deaths of tens of millions of people. In July, the world found out OpenAI lost control of an AI model. The result? The model hacked into another company’s computers—a clear violation of federal law.

People who have a fiber broadband connection are doing more with artificial intelligence (AI) than people who don’t have a fiber connection, according to new research from Recon Analytics, which surveys 6,000 people per week about AI. Roger Entner, founder of Recon Analytics, said his research found that people who have fiber broadband typically ask 28.5 questions per AI session. But the number of questions goes down with the quality of their connection.

Corporate America was enthusiastic about artificial intelligence. Until it got the bill. Whiplash around spending on “tokens,” the units of computing power in which A.I. is sold, is hitting engineering teams and board rooms. First there was “tokenmaxxing,” as executives encouraged as much A.I. use as possible.

The NC Rural Center has advocated for rural broadband for more than two decades, beginning with its leadership of the e-NC Authority, a statewide initiative created in 2000 to promote broadband deployment.8 Since then, the Rural Center has continued to support broadband expansion through policy leadership, community engagement, and advocacy for state and federal investments. Recognizing that funding alone would not achieve universal connectivity, the Rural Center launched the Collaborative Broadband Initiative in 2022 with support from Dogwood Health Trust, the U.S.

Senate Republican leaders unveiled a spending bill that would temporarily block President Donald Trump from implementing a rule change that would give political appointees sweeping power over hundreds of billions of dollars in fe

Wireless carriers are resolving customer problems faster, delivering consistently high-quality service and demonstrating great value for the price they are paying. Overall customer satisfaction with wireless carriers is up 10 points (on a 1,000-point scale) on average. Increased use of artificial intelligence (AI) in the customer support function is playing an important role in changing the way customers interact with their carriers, but is delivering mixed results when it comes to overall customer satisfaction.

Funding for federal programs supporting broadband infrastructure and digital inclusion has tightened over the last year. With the Affordable Connectivity Program winding down in April 2024, the termination of Digital Equity Act grants in May 2025, and changes to the Broadband, Equity, Access, and Deployment (BEAD) Program, the digital divide could widen, leaving millions disconnected from essential services that rely on internet access, including healthcare.

The Federal Communications Commission (FCC) and its contract partner CostQuest have been agonizing over the U.S. broadband map for more than five years. They really doubled-down on the effort to create an accurate nationwide map when the Broadband Equity, Access and Deployment (BEAD) Program started. Now, coming in at the 9th inning, the U.S. Senate has passed a bill—SB 2585 MAP for Broadband Funding Act—that would require the FCC to reevaluate its national broadband map.