Since 2010, the Benton Foundation and the New America Foundation have partnered to highlight telecommunications debates from countries outside the U.S.
Stories from Abroad
Real Girls, Real Lives, Connected: A global study of girls' access and usage of mobile internet
Limited global research exists about girls’ and boys’ access to and use of mobile phones. For girls, access is much more diverse and colourful than simply whether they ‘have’ or ‘have not’ got a phone. Access is often transient, and diverse ownership, borrowership and sharing practices are flourishing. Boys are 1.5 times more likely to own a phone and 1.8 times more likely to own a smartphone. They're also more likely to use phones in more diverse and internet-enabled ways than girls. Girls are going to great lengths to gain access.
Enhancing the U.S.-Pacific Islands Partnership
President Joe Biden renewed our commitment to enhancing our partnership with the Pacific Islands, and the respective governments, to achieve our shared vision for a resilient Pacific region of peace, harmony, security, social inclusion, and prosperity, where individuals can reach their potential, the environment can thrive, and democracy can flourish. President Biden announced a new slate of activities, including plans to work with Congress to request and provide nearly $200 million in funding. The President announced plans to expand the U.S.
Britain makes internet safer, as Online Safety Bill finished and ready to become law
The Online Safety Bill passed its final Parliamentary debate and is now ready to become law. The bill expects social media platforms to:
Netflix and Korea’s SK Broadband End Lawsuits Over Fees, Technology
Netflix and SK Broadband, one of South Korea’s largest internet service providers, are ending all their lawsuits and are instead creating a strategic partnership to provide better entertainment experiences to Korean customers. The legal dispute began in 2020 over whether content providers that generate large amounts of traffic should pay “network usage fees” in addition to the bills paid by the household end users, or whether that would go against the principle of net neutrality and lead to higher costs for consumers. Netflix said that it could offer a technological solution to traffic volu
EU technology-specific industrial policy: The case of 5G and 6G.
The European Commission has recognized early on the disruptive potential of 5G and later 6G.
What drives broadband traffic?
Worldwide, there is an ongoing policy and regulatory push to make very high-speed broadband available as widely as possible. Underlying the policy interventions to support higher speeds is an implicit assumption that higher speeds will enable different (and socially valuable) uses. Extensive data on usage published by the UK telecommunications regulator finds that the linkage between broadband speeds and traffic per line—allowing for demographic factors—shows that higher speed has a weak relationship to traffic.
UK home broadband performance
Ofcom’s Communications Market Report 2023 shows that 86% of UK households take fixed broadband. This report summarises our research to understand broadband performance. It is based on two main sources of data: data collected by SamKnows from volunteers who connect a hardware monitoring unit to their broadband router; and data provided to Ofcom by the UK’s four largest broadband providers. Superfast products accounted for 93% of all home broadband lines.
Google has a new tool to outsmart authoritarian internet censorship
Google is launching new anti-censorship technology, Outline VPN, to increase access for internet users living under authoritarian regimes.
Connected Nations: Summer Update 2023
Key findings on mobile coverage and fixed broadband availability across the UK as of April and May 2023:
UNESCO: Dependence on Tech Caused ‘Staggering’ Education Inequality
In early 2020, as the coronavirus spread, schools around the world abruptly halted in-person education. To many governments and parents, moving classes online seemed the obvious stopgap solution. In the United States, school districts scrambled to secure digital devices for students. Almost overnight, videoconferencing software like Zoom became the main platform teachers used to deliver real-time instruction to students at home.