The Efficacy of the Connect America Fund in Addressing US Internet Access Inequities

Title: The Efficacy of the Connect America Fund in Addressing US Internet Access Inequities

Authors:

Haarika Manda, Varshika Srinivasavaradhan (University ofCalifornia, Santa Barbara); Laasya Koduru, Kevin Zhang,Xuanhe Zhou(University of California Santa Barbara); UditPaul(Ookla Inc.); Elizabeth Belding(University of California Santa Barbara); Arpit Gupta(University ofCalifornia, Santa Barbara); Tejas N. Narechania(UcBerkeley)

Introduction

The paper investigates the effectiveness of the Connect America Fund (CAF) in mitigating internet access disparities in the United States. This issue is crucial as broadband internet is essential for various aspects of modern life, including education, healthcare, and commerce. Despite significant taxpayer investments, broadband access remains inequitable, particularly in rural areas. Existing systems and tools often rely on self-reported data from ISPs, which can be unreliable and incomplete, thus failing to provide an accurate assessment of broadband availability and quality.

Key Idea and Contribution

The authors developed a novel dataset using the Broadband Plan Querying Tool (BQT) to complement ISP-reported data with publicly available broadband plan details from ISP websites. This tool queries broadband plans for 537,000 residential addresses across 15 states, providing a more accurate picture of broadband service availability and compliance with CAF requirements. The study aims to assess whether ISPs genuinely offer broadband access to CAF-targeted addresses if they meet the rate and service quality standards, and if the regulated monopolies created by CAF offer better services than unregulated monopolies.

Evaluation

The evaluation reveals significant discrepancies between ISP-reported data and actual broadband availability. The serviceability rate is only 55.45%, while the compliance rate with the FCC minimum speed requirement is only 33.03%. Despite occasional improvements in download speeds for CAF-served addresses, the CAF program largely fails to achieve its intended goals. This result is significant because it underscores the need for improved oversight and verification mechanisms to ensure that public funds are effectively used to enhance broadband access in underserved areas.

Q1: Who do you blame for the lagging internet infrastructure in rural areas?
A1: I blame the system, which forces ISPs to look at profits in order to establish good infrastructure in these rural areas. I think these rural areas should not be reliant on ISPs for high-quality infrastructure.

Q2: Have you got a baseline started for the BEED program?
A2: We’re working on that. Actually, we’re currently working on using New York’s Affordable Broadband Act and really querying data every week or so, so we can see how if maybe there’s an upward trend when it comes to serviceability in a lot of these areas.

Q3: Do the ISPs know about your work? Are they oblivious to the bad performance, or do they know and are willfully ignorant?
A3: Well, I am not a law professor, so I can’t answer everything, but I can say there was a Broadband article, and they did have a response to that article. I believe their response was essentially “no comment” and that they felt they had satisfied the requirements set by the FCC.

Personal Thoughts

This paper provides a thorough and data-driven assessment of the CAF program, revealing critical shortcomings in current broadband policy implementation. I appreciate the innovative use of the BQT to gather more accurate data and the comprehensive analysis of service availability and quality. However, the reliance on ISP-advertised data in the study might still miss some aspects of user experience and actual service performance. Future research could explore user-reported data and more granular performance metrics to provide a fuller picture of broadband access disparities. Additionally, investigating the impact of emerging technologies and alternative funding models could offer valuable insights into more effective ways to bridge the digital divide.