A new report by Information Technology and Innovation Foundation (ITIF) Research Fellow Richard Bennett reviews the historical development of the Internet architecture and finds that contrary to claims that the Internet has always been a "dumb pipe," in fact, an extraordinarily high degree of intelligence is embedded in the network core. Read More »
The U.S. Broadband Coalition has released its initial report on the upcoming national broadband strategy. The report synthesizes the views of the coalition's 160-plus member-organizations. The U.S. Broadband Coalition intends that the report will serve as a building block for the National Broadband Task Force - which will be delivering a national broadband policy to Congress in early 2010. Read More »
In the United States we value fast cars, fast food and fast Internet. Well, two out of three isn’t bad. Speed Matters third annual study on Internet download speeds was released last week and the results are in: The United States made little progress since in the last year to improve the speed of our Internet connections. Many media outlets and bloggers cited the new report as evidence for the U.S. lagging behind other nations including: USA Today, CNET, the Chicago Sun Times, The Christian Science Monitor, LA Times, PC Magazine, Life Hacker and GigaOm. Read More »
The US Department of Agriculture released a report that compared job growth in rural areas that adopted broadband at the start of the decade with areas that lack broadband. The conclusion: broadband helps communities and businesses create good-paying jobs. Yet, according to the USDA study, only 41 percent of rural households had broadband connections in 2008. Read More »
As a part of its series of national broadband plan workshops, the FCC recently convened a session on broadband policies in other countries. These workshops are designed to help the FCC develop a national broadband plan, which is due to Congress by February 17. Read More »
Health Data Management recently reported on the ability of telemedicine to bring 21st century medical technology to Americans living in rural communities. Many of these health benefits, however, are unavailable to those without broadband connectivity. Read More »
Connected Nation recently released its first statewide assessment of broadband availability in North Carolina. Created in conjunction with the North Carolina Farm Bureau, the assessment compiled data from over thirty broadband providers across the state. The map is of particular importance to North Carolina because it can serve as a resource for those applying for federal broadband stimulus funding. Read More »
A new research study reveals that many American households now consider broadband Internet access a necessity. Broadband at home, the study concludes, provides over $30 billion annually in benefits to consumers in the areas of education, health care, work, news, entertainment and civic affairs. Read More »
Real estate industry, take note: today's homebuyers are looking for broadband that's delivered fast, consistently, and directly to the home. The Fiber-to-the-Home Council announced recently that a staggering 82% of broadband-using homebuyers rank direct fiber connections as the number one real estate amenity. Read More »
The Pew Internet & American Life Project released the home broadband adoption report of 2009 on Wednesday, June 17, describing this year's successes and shortcomings in broadband penetration. Speed Matters is happy to see that 63% of adult Americans now have broadband internet connections at home - a 15% increase from last year. Unfortunately, the report shows that there is still a significant digital divide in the United States along racial, income and geographic lines. Read More »
