News
ARNIC at ICA’23
The 73rd Annual ICA (International Communication Association) Conference starts this week, and ARNIC-affiliated faculty and students will be presenting their work in various divisions and venues. Special congratulations to our top paper awardees! See the table below for details on the presentations at ICA. We hope to see you there. Presenter Session Day/Time Paper Lichen Zhen…
Read MoreLaunch of The Benton Institute ACP Performance Tool
Interested in learning how ACP sign-ups are going? Check out The Benton Institute ACP Performance Tool developed jointly by Benton Senior Fellow John B. Horrigan, Oklahoma State University professor Brian Whitacre, and USC Annenberg School for Communication and Journalism Professor Hernan Galperin. The tool shows 1) the number of households that have signed up for…
Read MoreAffordable Connectivity Program (ACP) State-Level Dashboard
The ACP State-Level Dashboard simultaneously displays ACP participation rates in February 2023 and Jan-to-Dec 2022 enrollment growth for each state. The scatterplot on the left shows the relationship between state-level ACP participation and growth, with lines representing the median value for the selected states. This four-quadrant format helps visualize states with high participation/high growth (right…
Read MoreNew Publication on ACP Awareness in the Benton Institute for Broadband & Society
Associate professor Hernan Galperin and doctoral student Alex Alvarado from ARNIC coauthored a post with Brian Whitacre and John Horrigan based on survey data related to awareness of the ACP benefit amongst eligible households. Main findings include that half of all eligible households are not aware of the subsidy, but policymakers and community leaders can…
Read MoreFCC Outreach Grants: Reaching the Non-Enrolled
On March 10, 2023, the FCC Affordable Broadband Outreach Grants Program allocated a total of $66 million in 197 grants to 195 organizations in 50 U.S. States and Territories.. On March 15, the FCC announced an additional $7.5 million in Outreach Grants to 32 organizations in 22 states for two additional outreach programs. Overall, 221…
Read MoreA look at the Affordable Connectivity Program’s inaugural year through interactive dashboards
The Affordable Connectivity Program (ACP) is the most ambitious federal initiative put into place to bridge the broadband connectivity gap for low-income Americans. The ACP launched in January 2022, serving almost 10 million households that were transitioned from the Emergency Broadband Benefit program (EBB). By the end of 2022 it had enrolled another 5.4 million…
Read MoreNew Policy Brief on Internet Service Providers (ISPs) in California (2014-2020)
ARNIC published a policy brief today on evaluating the impact of three affordable plans in California during 2014-20 to see whether these plans have contributed to narrowing the income gap in residential (fixed) broadband. To estimate impact, the study uses a difference-in-difference (DiD) strategy. Overall, the results indicate that these affordable plans have had little…
Read MoreMeet our new visiting scholar – Dr. Matt Rafalow
This semester, we welcome Dr. Matt Rafalow, a sociologist (PhD, University of California-Irvine), social scientist at Google (YouTube), and Research Fellow at USC Annenberg. At Google he manages a research team studying new experiences on YouTube. Most of his research focuses on digital inequality in education and through creative production online. Learn more about his work in…
Read MoreNew Case Study on Digital Inclusion in Public Housing
ARNIC published a case study today on evaluating the digital equity efforts of the Housing Authority of the City of Los Angeles (HACLA). Based on expert interviews and a review of public documents from HACLA, this report finds that housing authorities such as HACLA are uniquely positioned to offer connectivity solutions that match residents’ needs.…
Read MoreNew Case Study Publication on Broadband Vouchers: Evaluating the Alabama Broadband Connectivity
ARNIC published a case study today on evaluating the Alabama Broadband Connectivity in connecting low-income families through broadband vouchers. estimating participation in the Affordable Connectivity Program (ACP). Key findings include:
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