Who Gets Broadband When? A Panel Data Analysis of Demographic, Economic and Technological Factors Explaining U.S. Broadband Deployment

22 Pages Posted: 19 Mar 2018 Last revised: 8 Oct 2018

See all articles by Vamsi Gadiraju

Vamsi Gadiraju

Columbia University - Department of Computer Science

Anthony Panat

Columbia University - Department of Computer Science

Raghav Poddar

Columbia University - Department of Computer Science

Zain Sherriff

Columbia University - Department of Computer Science

Sam Kececi

Columbia University - Department of Computer Science

Henning Schulzrinne

Columbia University - Department of Computer Science

Date Written: August 15, 2018

Abstract

We study how US broadband has been deployed from 2014 to 2016 at the block and block-group level, focusing on access technology development and upgrades, expansion in rural and non-rural areas, demographics, and ISP growth. Since broadband definitions have changed over time, we provide statistical analyses using both the 25 Mbps download and 3 Mbps upload speeds as well as 10 Mbps download and 1 Mbps upload speeds. We combine data from Federal Communications Commission (FCC) 477 forms, the 2010 Census, and 2010-2014 American Community Survey (ACS) data to analyze the technology, performance, provider, and service territory characteristics affecting broadband offerings. Starting with an infrastructure-centric analysis, we analyze the most common technologies in new broadband deployments and then proceed to determine the speed distributions for each. We then focus on the rural/non-rural divide in expansion and investigate whether broadband is becoming more readily available in regions with lower economic growth factors and lower educational rates. Aside from this infrastructure-focused analysis, we used a binary logistic regression to analyze the regression coefficients and general statistics between broadband deployment and key demographic indicators of economic status, population change, and education over time. Finally, we explore how provider coverage across the nation has changed. Currently, 58% of households for 25/3 broadband and 76% for 10/1 broadband have access to two or more wireline or fixed broadband service offerings. With this in mind, we further analyzed providers' territorial expansion, change in subscribers, and competition with new offerings such as Google Fiber.

Keywords: Broadband Deployment, Internet Infrastructure, Internet Technology, Internet Service Providers, Rural/Urban Divide, Broadband Demographics

Suggested Citation

Gadiraju, Vamsi and Panat, Anthony and Poddar, Raghav and Sherriff, Zain and Kececi, Sam and Schulzrinne, Henning, Who Gets Broadband When? A Panel Data Analysis of Demographic, Economic and Technological Factors Explaining U.S. Broadband Deployment (August 15, 2018). Available at SSRN: https://ssrn.com/abstract=3142479 or http://dx.doi.org/10.2139/ssrn.3142479

Vamsi Gadiraju

Columbia University - Department of Computer Science ( email )

New York, NY 10027
United States

Anthony Panat

Columbia University - Department of Computer Science ( email )

New York, NY 10027
United States

Raghav Poddar

Columbia University - Department of Computer Science ( email )

New York, NY 10027
United States

Zain Sherriff

Columbia University - Department of Computer Science ( email )

New York, NY 10027
United States

Sam Kececi

Columbia University - Department of Computer Science ( email )

New York, NY 10027
United States

Henning Schulzrinne (Contact Author)

Columbia University - Department of Computer Science ( email )

New York, NY 10027
United States
2129397042 (Phone)

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