Broadband Expansion Research Articles

Willingness to pay for broadband: A case study of Wisconsin

As broadband expansion efforts in the U.S. continue with historic investments, consumer demand for residential broadband services is of first-order importance. Several past broadband willingness to pay studies estimate the value of broadband to be low, compared to the current national average cost of internet subscriptions being around $65 per month. Additional estimates of household's willingness to pay for broadband are needed to provide more insight into how much households value these services and what type of support would be most efficient in increasing broadband adoption to close the digital divide. These estimates are helpful for policymakers, internet service providers, and community leaders working on broadband subsidy programs, trying to bring ISPs to communities, and setting service prices. Using choice experiment data from a 2022 broadband survey in Wisconsin, I find households are willing to pay $45-$334 per month to go from not having internet at home to having speeds between 25 Mbps and 1,000 Mbps and are willing to pay $10-$38 for greater reliability, depending on household income level. While consumers are willing to pay more for speed than reliability, the value consumers place on speed is diminishing. Connection is valuable to people, but getting connected at a much faster speed is not seen as worth a lot more. These estimates suggest households place a high value on home internet and are willing to pay at least, if not more, than prices already available on the market in many places.

Bridging digital divides in Wisconsin: an examination of policy efforts and effectiveness over the past five years

ABSTRACT The digital divide, generally characterized by unequal Internet access, represents the gap between individuals who benefit from the use of digital technologies and those who do not. Many social inequalities are associated with the prevalence of the digital divide, particularly across the rural-urban divide. This research seeks to characterize the status of the digital divide, and related sociodemographic variables, within the context of the US state of Wisconsin. In addition, this research investigates the effectiveness of broadband expansion grants, within the state of Wisconsin, on bridging the digital divide. The findings indicate that, at the county level, variations in education, household income, age, and location on a rural-urban continuum are all associated with variations in county broadband adoption rates. Also, despite increasing broadband funding, the amount of money sent to a county is not associated with the need of that county or the change in county level broadband adoption rates from the year 2017–2021. The findings of this study have theoretical implications as they add to our understanding of how broadband adoption is related to social aspects of life. In addition, there are political implications in terms of how grant funding allocation is determined.

The role of mobile broadband in poverty alleviation: a comparison of the effects of 3G and 4G network expansion in underdeveloped regions of Indonesia

ABSTRACT Alleviating poverty remains a significant global challenge necessitating effective interventions. While Information and Communications Technology (ICT) is widely acknowledged as a contemporary solution for addressing socioeconomic issues, the impact of supply-side factors, notably mobile broadband expansion, remains uncertain. Our study bridges this gap by analyzing the effects of 3G and 4G coverage on poverty rates and gaps in 109 underdeveloped regions in Indonesia from 2017–2021. Through quantitative analysis and map charts, we ascertain that increased 3G and 4G coverage is associated with decreased poverty rates and gaps. Specifically, a 1 percent rise in 3G coverage corresponds to a 0.019 percent decrease in poverty rates and a 0.011 point reduction in the poverty gap. Similarly, a 1 percent increase in 4G coverage reduces poverty rates by 0.009 percent and the poverty gap by 0.004 points. These findings offer valuable theoretical and practical insights to inform future research and policy initiatives.

Broadband Internet access and health outcomes: Patient and provider responses in Medicare

High-speed internet has increased the amount of information available in health care markets. Online information may improve health outcomes if it reduces information frictions and helps patients choose higher quality providers or causes providers to improve quality. We examine how health outcomes for common procedures in Medicare changed after broadband internet rolled out across ZIP Codes from 1999 to 2008. Estimates imply that broadband expansion improved health outcomes by 5%. Broadband access primarily helped patients choose higher-quality providers; we also find some evidence that broadband improved provider quality. We use a structural model to decompose the improvements in patient outcomes over time. Counterfactual simulations imply that broadband roll-out was responsible for 16% of the improvement in outcomes by the end of the period.

Discussion of federal policies affecting broadband expansion and telehealth in Appalachia

Background There have been 188 rural hospital closures in the United States since 2010 with approximately 20% of these in Appalachia. Telehealth has become a way that nurses can reach rural patients who might not otherwise receive health care. Objectives The purpose of this paper is to (1) outline the federal policies enacted during COVID-19 for broadband expansion; and (2) suggest how advanced practice nursing care might be affected by broadband expansion and telehealth in the region. Methods A search of PubMed was conducted in January 2023, using the search words, “policy”, “telehealth”, “broadband”, and “Appalachia”. Findings New laws appropriated funds to expand broadband infrastructure that made it possible for telehealth to be used by nurses to deliver health care to rural patients. Conclusion This discussion paper found that broadband legislation was instrumental in expanding telecommunications and telehealth by NPs. There is a great need for broadband to continue to expand and for trained nurses to provide care via telehealth.

Poor Representation of Rural Counties of the United States in Some Measures of Consumer Broadband.

Telehealth has the potential to mitigate the lack of health care access in rural and underserved communities; however, telehealth is only viable where sufficiently high-speed internet broadband is available to patients. Existing broadband data sets may not accurately reflect the state of broadband, particularly in rural communities. We examined consumer internet speed test data from two organizations to see if the number of tests per 1,000 residents varied across county-level rurality. We analyzed county-level data from Measurement Labs (M-Lab) and Ookla for Good (Ookla fixed and mobile) across the calendar years 2020 and 2021. We used the number of tests conducted per 1,000 residents within United States counties as the outcome variable, and Rural-Urban Continuum Codes (RUCC) as the main independent variable of interest. Using negative binomial models with robust standard errors, we found that the number of fixed speed tests conducted per 1,000 residents was generally lower in rural counties relative to counties with over one million residents. However, we found no associations between any categories of county-level rurality for the number of mobile tests conducted per 1,000 residents. Patterns of association with other covariates emerged as significant in some models and not in others, suggesting key differences among users generating speed tests among these data sources. Our findings demonstrate the poor representation of residents from very rural counties in M-Lab and Ookla fixed data sets of user-generated internet speed tests. Additional data are needed to inform broadband infrastructure investment to identify those communities most left behind by broadband expansion efforts.

Mapping and Spatial Analysis to Expand Rural Broadband Access

High-speed broadband internet access is a critically important issue for many aspects of daily life, yet populations in rural areas are often unserved or underserved with reliable internet connectivity. Expanding broadband internet coverage in rural areas may have significant economic potential, especially since it enables precision farming which in turn increases yields, particularly for row crops such as corn and soybeans. This paper introduces methods that utilize GIS spatial analysis and remote sensing to assist in efforts to expand rural broadband access using case study counties in Illinois. Specifically, the methods presented here: (1) quantify current cropland production as well as future potential production in currently unserved or underserved rural areas; and (2) automate mapping of vertical assets from Light Detection and Ranging (LiDAR) data that may be utilized as high points to expand broadband coverage. Collectively, these methodologies may be used for policy advocacy and to inform the decision-making process as future broadband expansion initiatives are considered in rural areas.

Internet technology and regional financial fraud: evidence from Broadband expansion in China

ABSTRACT Combined with data from the Broadband China pilots, panel data on financial fraud in prefecture-level cities from China Judgments Online are used to examine the impact of internet technology on financial fraud. We find that internet technology has significantly increased city financial fraud. The causal effect still exists after the model validity test, excluding the selection bias of Broadband China pilot cities and the reporting effect of the internet. Furthermore, the trust effect is an important mechanism, and heterogeneity analysis shows that internet technology has a more significant impact on the financial fraud committed by highly educated and young fraudsters and on high-tech-dependent financial fraud.

Impact of fast internet access on employment: Evidence from a broadband expansion in China

This paper investigates whether and how broadband internet development affects employment in China. The temporal and spatial variations in Broadband China Strategy implementation allow for applying a staggered difference-in-differences (DID) to identify the intention-to-treat effects of the increased availability of broadband on labor market outcomes. Robust results show that broadband internet development will not affect the employment rate for low- and high-skilled workers. Furthermore, broadband internet development improves low-skilled workers' contract signing, pension, and medical insurance participation by 11.5%, 17%, and 19.8%, respectively but has no significant impact on high-skilled workers. Potential mechanisms can be divided into two aspects. At the micro level, broadband internet development mitigates information friction and increases the probability of online learning for low-skilled workers. Meanwhile, at the macro aspect, adopting broadband Internet enhances firms' productivity where low-skilled workers are most concentrated (manufacturing industry). The heterogeneous results suggest younger and rural workers benefit more. Our findings have great significance in eliminating concerns about broadband investment in developing countries.

Broadband Expansion in Rural Indiana: Conflicting Federal and State Policies Delay Internet Access for Many Hoosiers

Broadband Expansion in Rural Indiana: Conflicting Federal and State Policies Delay Internet Access for Many Hoosiers

Broadband internet and stock market participation

This paper examines the effect of broadband Internet on household stock market participation. By exploiting the expansion of broadband in the U.S. from 1999 to 2008, we find that the availability of broadband in a household's zip code significantly increases the likelihood of stockholding and the share of wealth invested in stocks. Moreover, this effect operates through a higher tendency to follow the stock market, indicating that broadband access reduces the information cost associated with stockholding. The effect of broadband access concentrates among people with high socioeconomic status. By contrast, the arrival of broadband has little impact on the portfolio choice and stock market following of people with low socioeconomic status, who most need to improve wealth accumulation. Our study sheds light on the role of technology development in household finance and the potential distributional effect of technology diffusion.

Abstract 10423: US Counties With Low Broadband Internet Access Have a High Burden of Cardiovascular Risk Factors, Disease, and Mortality

Introduction: Nationwide broadband internet access is a major federal priority. The bipartisan infrastructure law invested $65 billion into equitable broadband expansion, driven by concern that broadband access is a social determinant of health. However, the difference in health outcomes between counties with low vs. higher broadband access has not been studied, and could provide insights on the implications of expansion efforts. Objectives: We evaluated demographic factors, health resources, and cardiovascular disease (CVD) burden in counties with low broadband access compared to those with higher access. Methods: We assessed all 3,142 US counties in 2019 and identified those with low broadband access, defined as <50% of residents having access to internet subscriptions with speeds > 25 Mbps download / > 3 Mbps upload, using the US Broadband Usage Percentages Dataset. We linked these data to the American Community Survey, American Health Resource File, PLACES, and CDC WONDER for demographic, health resource, CVD risk factor and outcomes, and mortality data respectively. Results: There were 461 counties with low broadband access and 2,650 counties with higher access. Compared to those with higher broadband access, counties with low broadband access had lower high school graduation rates (47% vs 54%, p<0.001) and were more likely to be rural (86% vs 59%, p<0.001). Low-access counties had fewer primary care physicians and fewer cardiologists, but similar hospital beds per capita ( Table ). These counties had higher rates of CVD risk factors, coronary artery disease, and stroke, as well as higher age-adjusted rates of CVD mortality and all-cause mortality ( Table ). Conclusions: Counties with low broadband access have lower access to physicians and significantly higher rates of CVD risk factors, CVD, and CVD mortality. Expanding access to broadband internet and telemedicine has the potential to improve access to care and reduce disparities in CVD outcomes.

Do Americans Lacking a Local Orthopaedic Surgeon Have Adequate Broadband for Telehealth?

Although telehealth holds promise in expanding access to orthopaedic surgical care, high-speed internet connectivity remains a major limiting factor for many communities. Despite persistent federal efforts to study and address the health information technology needs of patients, there is limited information regarding the current high-speed internet landscape as it relates to access to orthopaedic surgical care. (1) What is the distribution of practicing orthopaedic surgeons in the United States relative to the presence of broadband internet access? (2) What geographic, demographic, and socioeconomic factors are associated with the absence of high-speed internet and access to a local orthopaedic surgeon? The Federal Communications Commission (FCC) Mapping Broadband in America interactive tool was used to determine the proportion of county residents with access to broadband-speed internet for all 3141 US counties. Data regarding the geographic distribution of orthopaedic surgeons and county-level characteristics were obtained from the 2015 Physician Compare National Downloadable File and the Area Health Resource File, respectively. The FCC mapping broadband public use files are considered the most comprehensive datasets describing high-speed internet infrastructure within the United States. The year 2015 represents the most recently available FCC data for which county-level broadband penetration estimates are available. Third-party audits of the FCC data have shown that broadband expansion has been slow over the past decade and that many large improvements have been driven by changes in the reporting methodology. Therefore, we believe the 2015 FCC data still hold relevance. The primary outcome measure was the simultaneous absence of at least 50% broadband penetration and at least one orthopaedic surgeon practicing in county limits. Statistical analyses using Kruskal-Wallis tests and multivariable logistic regression were conducted to assess for factors associated with inaccessibility to orthopaedic telehealth. All statistical tests were two-sided with a significance threshold of p < 0.05. In 2015, 14% (448 of 3141) of counties were considered "low access" in that they both had no orthopaedic surgeons and possessed less than 50% broadband access. A total of 4,660,559 people lived within these low-access counties, representing approximately 1.4% (4.6 million of 320.7 million) of the US population. After controlling for potential confounding variables, such as the age, sex, income level, and educational attainment, lower population density per square mile (OR 0.92 [95% confidence interval (CI) 0.90 to 0.94]; p < 0.01), a lower number of primary care physicians per 100,000 (OR 0.88 [95% CI 0.81 to 0.97]; p < 0.01), a higher unemployment level (OR 1.3 [95% CI 1.2 to 1.4]; p < 0.01), and greater number preventable hospital stays per 100,000 (OR 1.01 [95% CI 1.01 to 1.02]; p < 0.01) were associated with increased odds of being a low-access county (though the effect size of the finding was small for population density and number of primary care physicians). Stated another way, each additional person per square mile was associated with an 8% (95% CI 6% to 10%; p < 0.01) decrease in the odds of being a low-access county, and each additional percentage point of unemployment was associated with a 30% (95% CI 20% to 40%) increase in the odds of being a low-access county. Despite the potential for telehealth programs to improve the delivery of high-quality orthopaedic surgical care, broadband internet access remains a major barrier to implementation. Until targeted investments are made to expand broadband infrastructure across the country, health systems, policymakers, and surgeon leaders must capitalize on existing federal subsidy programs, such as the lifeline or affordability connectivity initiatives, to reach unemployed patients living in economically depressed regions. The incorporation of internet access questions into clinic-based social determinants screening may facilitate the development of alternative follow-up protocols for patients unable to participate in synchronous videoconferencing. Some orthopaedic patients lack the broadband capacity necessary for telehealth visits, in which case surgeons may pursue alternative methods of follow-up such as mobile phone-based surveillance of postoperative wounds, surgical sites, and clinical symptoms.

Service of General Interest in the Rhenish Coal-Mining Area in Context of Structural Change

Territorial cohesion is of main interest in the EU and its member state Germany. It should lead to a reduction of disparities between different stats of development and is closely related to the accessibility to Service of General (SGI) in different areas. The investigated area in this article is characterized by the end of coal fired power generation by the Coal-Phase-out act. In this article the accessibility to SGI is discussed. Additionally, the accessibility to specific SGI is investigated with a special view to the southern rural parts of the Rhenish coal-mining area. It is outlined that the provision to SGIs is high near to agglomerations and decreases in rural parts. This can also be observed for broadband expansion, while the access to internet allows a higher accessibility to SGIs for different analysed indicators. This research is used to establish a regional development strategy to maintain equal living conditions for the entire region.

Education outcomes of broadband expansion in Brazilian municipalities

This study analyzes the effect of local Internet speed infrastructure (backhaul) on educational outcomes. In 2008, the Brazilian government implemented an Internet expansion policy that brought broadband to more than 3000 municipalities. The policy was designed with implementation criteria that make it a natural experiment that can be investigated through a regression discontinuity design (RDD). The results suggest worsening proficiency, higher dropout and retention among students from municipalities served by more powerful backhauls, i.e., capable of supporting higher connection speeds over fiberoptic lines. These results are paralleled in the empirical literature, which predominantly indicates negative or neutral effects of Internet access on education. This study demonstrates the need for a deeper reflection on the domestic use of the Internet and its consequences on educational outcomes of school-age children and adolescents.

The Effect of Fast Internet on Employment: Evidence from a Large Broadband Expansion Program in China

AbstractInformation and communication technology plays an important role in human life and social production. The existing literature has mainly studied the economic impact of such technology in developed countries; the use of broadband in developing countries has been overlooked. This paper fills the gap by examining a broadband development program in China. Difference‐in‐difference estimates show that the deployment of high‐quality broadband promoted regional employment in the skilled service sector. The effect was larger in cities with a greater number of educated residents and cities in the west of China. We also found that broadband development stimulated firm creation and innovation. These findings imply that broadband promotes innovation and provides new impetus to the economic transition of emerging markets.

PH Roundtable: Disparities in PH

PH Roundtable: Disparities in PH

Strengthening Hyperconnectivity with Imperative Digital Lifestyle

In this article, we tried to show that hyperconnectivity is not only related to the technology that enables interaction and communication but also to the impact this technology has on personal digital lifestyle and social community behaviour. Indeed, hyperconnectivity results from a combination of wider availability of high broadband expansion, exponential growth in the spread of mobile and laptops and high speed wireless networks. It includes the dominance of social media and consumer generated media in daily life and the recent use of the cloud for data and application access. Furthermore, hyperconnected communication includes not only human to human setups (i.e. as individuals and as members of groups and uses a significant amount of digital media) but also communication among individuals and machines and amongst machines to machines without the direct involvement of human beings. In this article, we have tinted this idea that hyperconnectivity is leveraging with today`s imperative digital lifestyle and digital media. Also, we advise that hyperconnectivity may become a central issue for the future if proper preparation does not espouse.

Rural Broadband and Precision Agriculture: A Frame Analysis of United States Federal Policy Outreach under the Biden Administration

Global food security requires sustainable and resource-efficient agricultural production. Precision agriculture may provide the tools needed to intensify agricultural production while prioritizing sustainability; however, there are barriers such as initial investments, knowledge gaps, and broadband access that may hinder adoption. Many rural areas in the United States lack the appropriate infrastructure for broadband access needed for precision agriculture, indicating government policies are needed to expand broadband access. The purpose of this qualitative research study was to develop a conceptualization of the current frames used by the Biden administration in communications related to rural broadband and precision agriculture. The methodological framework used was frame analysis. Data were initially analyzed inductively for overall gestalt and subsequently analyzed with abductive coding. Five overarching frames were identified during the data analysis process: broadband access and economic issues, garnering support for broadband expansion, urgency and equity surrounding broadband, expanding beyond the rural, and broadband infrastructure and the agricultural sector. The findings revealed broadband access associated with the Biden administration expanded beyond rural areas, recognizing that cities also face broadband access and affordability issues. There was a lack of discourse, however, surrounding rural broadband policy and precision agriculture, which may downplay its importance in agricultural sustainability.

First tribal broadband expansion grants awarded

Federal Grants & ContractsVolume 46, Issue 1 p. 1-1 Article First tribal broadband expansion grants awarded First published: 26 November 2021 https://doi.org/10.1002/fgc.32074Read the full textAboutPDF ToolsRequest permissionExport citationAdd to favoritesTrack citation ShareShare Give accessShare full text accessShare full-text accessPlease review our Terms and Conditions of Use and check box below to share full-text version of article.I have read and accept the Wiley Online Library Terms and Conditions of UseShareable LinkUse the link below to share a full-text version of this article with your friends and colleagues. Learn more.Copy URL Share a linkShare onFacebookTwitterLinked InRedditWechat No abstract is available for this article. Volume46, Issue12 December 2021Pages 1-1 RelatedInformation