Mapping the field: Retrospective of the federal universal service programs

The Telecommunications Act of 1996 (1996 Act) established the framework for four federal universal service programs: the High-Cost program, the Low-Income program, the Schools and Libraries (E-rate) program, and the Rural Health Care program. During the past 15 years, these programs have been examined from a number of perspectives in an attempt to measure their efficiency and effectiveness, including the funding mechanisms that support them. The Federal Communications Commission is in the process of restructuring the universal service programs to move support to broadband-based technologies. This is an opportune time to examine what is known about whether these programs have met the universal service objectives of the 1996 Act and have efficiently and effectively used universal service funding. To that end, this article surveys both oversight reports by federal government agencies and academic research literature drawn from a variety of sources to identify areas of concern regarding the mission, implementation, and impact of the federal universal service programs and support mechanisms. The article also includes research findings on how the economic incentives created by the federal universal service programs affect corporate investment and deployment decisions and consumer service and technology adoption decisions.     

Who is left behind? Exploring the characteristics of China's broadband non-adopting families

China has made significant progress in broadband development. As of September 2018, 95% of China's population was covered by 4G networks. However, our estimates show that nearly 30% of China's families did not use broadband that year. This study attempts to investigate the characteristics of China's broadband left-behind families. Overall, consistent with the findings for other countries, families with a lower socioeconomic status are more likely to be broadband non-adopters. In the information society, older, poorer, rural and less educated families are left behind. It is recommended that the Chinese government shift from a top-down investment-driven policy to a user-centered demand-driven policy to address the digital divide.     

Public private partnerships as a tool for stimulating investments in broadband

The paper is concerned with PPP in the telecommunications area and more specifically with the combination of public and private investments in upgrading broadband infrastructures. Following the liberalization of the telecommunications area, investments were primarily left to the private sector – though public investments have continued to take place in specific areas such as research and education networks and rural and otherwise underserved areas. Lately, however, governments have upgraded their public investment plans in broadband infrastructures. The question is whether we are witnessing a simple quantitative change or whether this quantitative change includes a qualitative evolvement in the view on the role of the public sector in expanding broadband infrastructures. At the present time, the most likely answer is that increasing public investments in broadband infrastructures signal a combination of concerns raised by the economic crisis and the growing awareness of the social and economic importance of efficient broadband infrastructures.     

Who replies to consultations,and what do they say? The case of broadband universal service in the UK

Over the last decade or so, access to broadband services has become increasingly important. While many in the UK already benefit from the provision of broadband, some, especially those located in more rural and remote areas, do not – they may not be able to access the Internet and when they do, their connection and consumer experience may be poor. After trying to resolve this through a stream of different initiatives, the UK government announced a broadband universal service obligation (USO) of 10 Mbps in late 2015. Ofcom, the telecommunications regulator, launched a consultation in April 2016 and sought the views of interested parties. The consultation attracted considerable interest, but after the submissions from orchestrated campaigns are discounted just over 100 responses remain. But who contributed and what did they say? To explore these two questions, this paper adopts a qualitative approach, using NVIVO, to analyse the responses to the consultation. We show that contributions were highly diverse, reflecting both the complexity of the issue as well as its politicised nature. A lack of agreement among the responses is revealed and divergent views on key issues like the appropriateness of 10 Mbps, whether this should change, how it should be funded or what technologies should be used exist. In this paper, we provide a critical discussion of and derive implications for the broadband USO. We tentatively conclude that those in rural and remote areas that the USO intends to help are caught between two countervailing forces – speed and cost deployment – that interact to ensure that whatever resolution to provide broadband access, some will likely be unhappy.     

The role of government in broadband access

This paper discusses the role of governments in broadband. It is divided into five sections. Following an introduction in section one, section two discusses the diffusion of broadband Internet. Section three deals with competition-based and public-goods views on regulation and the corresponding roles and issues for governments. To gain deeper insights into the role of government in broadband, section four analyses market regulation and public activities in furthering broadband deployment in the US, Korea and Europe. These insights are evaluated in relation to the theoretical considerations established in section three. Section five closes with a discussion of our results and some conclusions. It becomes obvious that national broadband strategies benefit from considering both public good and competition-related aspects.     

Universal service in China and India: Legitimating the state?

This paper examines the contrast between China's and India's universal service policies as manifestations of the two states' differing self-conceptualizations and legitimation strategies. We examine the timeline of universal service policies in the two countries, differentiating between the territorial, demographic and layered dimensions of universal service. The analysis reveals many similarities between the two countries, as well as some differences primarily related to the mode of funding universal service programs and the lead China has taken in deploying informatization services. We identify some of the proximate causes that resulted in these policy decisions. But in addition, we also examine how universal service policies are related to contrasting models of state legitimation.     

The U.S. National Broadband Map: Data limitations and implications

The 2011 release of the National Broadband Map (NBM) has generated significant interest from the telecommunications policy community. The NBM is a multiagency effort, including the National Telecommunications Administration (NTIA), the Federal Communications Commission (FCC), fifty U.S. states and five U.S. territories, to collect and disseminate information on broadband provision and quality of service for the United States. From a geographic perspective, the NBM represents a marked departure from previous broadband data efforts. Specifically, instead of disseminating FCC Form 477 data on providers at the ZIP code or Census tract level, the NBM reports provision information at the Census block level—the smallest geographic unit in which the Census bureau tabulates survey information. While this increased level of geographic data resolution is a welcome change, there are several notable limitations to these data that are important to consider when conducting spatial econometric analysis for public policy evaluation. With this in mind, the purpose of this paper is twofold. First, this paper explores the salient characteristics of Census block geographic base files, highlighting their strengths and weaknesses as summary units of spatial analysis. This also includes a brief discussion on how the NBM treats geographically large blocks and their use of road segments for aggregating provider data. Second, this paper examines the impacts of empty blocks (i.e. blocks that have no household information associated with them) for the spatial analysis of broadband. Finally, this paper provides a short overview of how these data limitations can impact public policy evaluation and provides a blueprint for improving the National Broadband Map.     

Telecommunications policy and individuals with disabilities: Issues of accessibility and social inclusion in the policy and research agenda

Information and communications technologies have become an integral part of life in an information society, affecting employment, education and many other daily activities. For individuals with disabilities, equal access to telecommunications remains a concern, as many technologies that are developed do not allow for equal access. Law and policy have made significant progress in some nations, but sizeable barriers remain to the social inclusion of individuals with disabilities in telecommunications technologies and services. This paper examines the importance of equal access to telecommunications for individuals with disabilities in both the formulation and the implementation of policy. Analyzing issues of policy and implementation, this paper discusses policy questions and potential areas of research to better understand the relationship of telecommunications policy to access for persons with disabilities.     

Public-private partnership for building a resilient broadband infrastructure in Puerto Rico

This article will explore the use of an innovative approach to a public-private partnership (PPP) to spur the deployment of broadband and create more resilient telecommunications networks in Puerto Rico. Such a partnership is a critical ingredient of the plan for rebuilding the telecommunications sector of Puerto Rico after the island was devastated by Hurricanes Irma and Maria in September 2017. The proposed partnership also has the potential for enabling the expansion of citizen access to broadband services throughout Puerto Rico. This work was done as part of the Congressionally mandated economic and disaster recovery plan for the island.     

Multilevel governance and broadband infrastructure development: Evidence from Canada

This paper investigates the contributions of digital infrastructure policies of provincial governments in Canada to the development of broadband networks. Using measurements of broadband network speeds between 2007 and 2011, the paper analyzes potential causes for observed differences in network performance growth across the provinces, including geography, Internet use intensity, platform competition, and provincial broadband policies. The analysis suggests provincial policies that employed public sector procurement power to open access to essential facilities and channeled public investments in Internet backbone infrastructure were associated with the emergence of relatively high quality broadband networks. However, a weak essential facilities regime and regulatory barriers to entry at the national level limit the scope for decentralized policy solutions.     

Universal service subsidies and cost overstatement: Evidence from the U.S. telecommunications sector

Utility subsidies are often defended as promoting universal service. However, specific support formulas may be poorly targeted and/or designed. The U.S. high-cost loop support (HCLS) program (formerly referred to as the Universal Service Fund (USF)), has been a key component of the FCC's USF program. With proposed initiatives for universal access to broadband, it is useful to critically evaluate how the HCLS creates a moral hazard problem. This study finds that companies receiving HCLS subsidies have an incentive to report high costs to the FCC in order to qualify for still higher support payments. Using data from 1136 rural telecom firms in 50 states (1992-2002), this study shows that some companies respond to current incentives by overstating costs (or incurring higher costs) as they approach the subsidy cutoff points. Compared to the no-subsidy group, companies at the point of greatest subsidy jump appear to overstate costs more due to larger marginal benefits. Such perverse incentives need to be recognized in future universal service initiatives.     

Universal service in Turkey: Recent developments and a critical assessment

The meaning of universal service in telecommunications has changed considerably in the last decade. Technological advances have created the necessity to redefine the legal framework. While the demand for old universal services falls, new and wider services are to be included in the scope of legal obligations such as broadband. In this transformation of public policy toward universal services, political preferences take precedence over economic considerations. Turkey provides a good case in point. In this paper, the authors assess the legal framework of universal services and its institutional structure in Turkey. The tension between enlarging the scope of universal service and pressures on using revenues efficiently is emphasized.     

Do ‘dig once’ and permitting policies improve fiber availability?

State and local governments have enacted different types of legislation aimed at improving broadband availability. Two unstudied policies of interest are: (1) “dig-once” policies requiring state-funded construction projects to notify local internet providers about the opportunity to bury conduit for easier wire installation in the future, and (2) permitting policies requiring an expeditious response from local jurisdictions regarding the installation of broadband equipment. We use the example of Iowa, which passed legislation on both of these topics in 2015 and compare trends in fiber broadband availability with that of states who did not pass such legislation. We also consider the potential impact on fixed wireless availability, which largely depends upon a fiber middle mile. We use coarsened exact matching at the census tract level to construct treated and control groups with similar pre-2015 demographic characteristics and broadband availability trends in Iowa and other states. Difference-in-difference regression analysis with the matched samples then assesses the policy impact on fiber and fixed wireless availability post-implementation. The results suggest that Iowa's policies increased fiber broadband availability by 2.4%–6.6% when considering eight model specifications which account for different criteria such as geographic region, other (non-dig-once or permitting) broadband policies, and federal funding received. The policies do not appear to have any effect on fixed wireless availability.     

Base stock policies with degraded service to larger orders

We study an inventory system controlled by a base stock policy assuming a compound renewal demand process. We extend the base stock policy by incorporating rules for degrading the service of larger orders. Two specific rules are considered, denoted as Postpone(q,t) and Split(q), respectively. The parameter q distinguishes between regular orders (of size less than or equal to q) and larger orders. We develop mathematical expressions for the performance measures: order fill rate of the regular orders and average on-hand inventory level. We make numerical experiments where the postpone parameter t and the base stock levels of each rule are such that all customers (of both order types) are indifferent between the two rules. When comparing the difference in the average on-hand inventory levels, we can then make an assessment of the threshold value of the cost of splitting an order (which may otherwise be hard to quantify) in the rule Split(q). Our numerical results indicate that this threshold value is increasing in the variance of the order sizes. Based on the numerical experiment our conclusion is therefore that when the variance of the order sizes is low, then Postpone(q,t) seems to be a good option, while when the variance is high, then Split(q) is more competitive.     

Uncertainty of public pay phone in Thailand: Implications for the universal service obligation

Public pay telephones are fast becoming technological dinosaurs headed quickly toward extinction. In Thailand, however, the National Broadcasting and Telecommunications Commission (NBTC) has included the public pay phone as part of the Universal Service Obligation (USO) to ensure that all people in the country have reasonable access to a standard telephone service on request, and that payphones are accessible to all people on an equitable basis, wherever they live or carry on business. In spite of this, however, public pay phones and their revenue are also sharply declining due to the ever increasing encroachment of mobile phone technology. The researcher therefore undertook a study to empirically examine the key determinant factors for individual consumers using public payphones. A discrete choice model is employed together with the analysis of data from a 2011 national survey commissioned by the NBTC. Payphone usage is determined by the ownership of fixed phones, mobile phones and income which all play an important role with payphone being a necessary service for low-income people. Hence, NBTC should continue support through the USO fund and reassess the areas and groups of people who need this service in order to ensure that the USO policy is effectively and beneficially implemented.