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Fast, affordable Internet access for all.
Reports
The Problem(s) of Broadband in America
As the Biden Administration is working with Senate Republicans and Democrats on a proposed infrastructure deal which now includes a $65 billion federal investment to expand broadband access, the details of how that money should be spent and where those investments should be targeted have yet to be decided. In a new policy brief, the Institute for Local Self-Reliance looks to provide clarity for policy-makers by exploring the real challenges of America’s connectivity crisis. The brief aims to clear up a common misunderstanding of exactly where the digital divide is located.
Shopping for Broadband: Failed Federal Policy Creates Murky Marketplace
A new report from the Institute for Local Self-Reliance (ILSR) examines Internet Service Providers’ (ISPs) transparency — or lack thereof — around the Internet service packages they offer. Shopping for Broadband: Failed Federal Policy Creates Murky Marketplace finds that locally-controlled broadband networks are the most transparent around key service details. Large ISPs, on the other hand, are more likely to make information like upload speed and pricing difficult or impossible to find.
Six Community Broadband Networks Demonstrate Diversity of Approaches to Connectivity Challenges
There are more than 600 wireline municipal broadband networks operating across the United States today. And while the ongoing discussion about our information infrastructure by Congress has placed a renewed emphasis on publicly owned endeavors to improving Internet access, the reality is that cities around the country have been successfully demonstrating the wide variety of successful approaches for decades.
Minnesota Broadband: Land of 10,000 Connectivity Solutions
In a new report, the Institute for Local Self-Reliance showcases the diverse range of approaches communities and local Internet Service Providers (ISPs) have taken to expand affordable, high-quality Internet access in Minnesota. It includes a series of case studies that detail how communities are meeting the connectivity challenges of a broken marketplace shaped by large monopoly service providers.
Building Indigenous Future Zones: Four Tribal Broadband Case Studies
The rate of connectivity in Indian Country lags behind the rest of the country. As of December 2018, only 60% percent of Tribal lands in the lower 48 states had high-speed Internet access. A new case study report from the Institute for Local Self-Reliance delves into the experiences of four Native Nations — the Coeur d’Alene, the Nez Perce, the Fond du Lac Band of Ojibwe, and the St. Regis Mohawk — as they constructed their own Internet service providers.
Wilson Hits a Fiber-to-the-Home Run with Greenlight Municipal Broadband Network
Built in 2008 with an eye toward the future and operated with local priorities in mind, Greenlight has a long track record of putting people first. In a new case study, the Institute for Local Self-Reliance explores the wide-ranging community benefits of Greenlight, the city-owned Fiber-to-the-Home network in Wilson, North Carolina.
Profiles of Monopoly: Big Cable and Telecom
The report explores the extent of monopoly control by the largest Internet Service Providers (ISPs) across the United States, and finds that most Americans have little choice when it comes to broadband where they live. In this version, we updated the maps and other information in the report with the most recent broadband deployment data from the Federal Communications Commission.
Broadband Models for Unserved and Underserved Communities
This paper from US Ignite and Altman Solon covers five approaches that communities can take to improve Internet access, from full private broadband to full municipal broadband with varying types of public-private partnerships in between. Of all the well-connected American cities (where 50 percent of residents have access to 250 Megabits per second broadband speeds), the paper finds that 8% are served a form of municipal network.
The Cost of Connectivity 2020
The Cost of Connectivity 2020, a recent report from the Open Technology Institute (OTI) at New America, explores how much Americans pay for Internet access compared to those in other parts of the world.
Community Broadband: The Fast, Affordable Internet Option That's Flying Under the Radar
New America’s Open Technology Institute has a new report out called “Community Broadband: The Fast, Affordable Internet Option That's Flying Under the Radar.” It offers a brief look at the problem of broadband access across the United States, points out of the many benefits of the community networks which have stepped in to fill the gaps left by private Internet Service Providers (ISPs), and provides a snapshot of a few examples that have overcome legislative hurdles and monopoly ISP lobbying to bring fast, reliable Internet service to people around the country.
Cooperatives Fiberize Rural America: A Trusted Model For The Internet Era (Updated May 2020)
This is an update to our report Cooperatives Fiberize Rural America: A Trusted Model For The Internet Era, which we originally published in 2017.
How Local Providers Built the Nation’s Best Internet Access in Rural North Dakota
Our case study, How Local Providers Built the Nation’s Best Internet Access in Rural North Dakota, explains how the majority of rural North Dakota has access to gigabit fiber, highlighting how 15 telephone cooperatives and local companies came together to invest in their rural communities and build broadband networks across the state. In the 1990s, those companies united to purchase 68 rural telephone exchanges in North Dakota from regional provider US West (now CenturyLink). Then, they leveraged federal broadband funds to deploy some of the most extensive fiber networks in the country, turning North Dakota into the rural broadband oasis that it is today.