Beyond Broadband Access

Beyond Broadband Access

Developing Data-Based Information Policy Strategies

After broadband access, what next? What role do metrics play in understanding “information societies”? And, more important, in shaping their policies? Beyond counting people with broadband access, how can economic and social metrics inform broadband policies, help evaluate their outcomes, and create useful models for achieving national goals? This timely volume not only examines the traditional questions about broadband, like availability and access, but also explores and evaluates new metrics more applicable to the evolving technologies of information access.

Beyond Broadband Access brings together a stellar array of media policy scholars from a wide range of disciplines—economics, law, policy studies, computer science, information science, and communications studies. Importantly, it provides a well-rounded, international perspective on theoretical approaches to databased communications policymaking in the Americas, Europe, Asia, and Africa. Showcasing a diversity of approaches, this invaluable collection helps to meet myriad challenges to improving the foundations for communications policy development.

  • Cover
  • Contents
  • Acknowledgments
  • Introduction: Numbers That Matter
  • PART I: THEORY
    • 1. Beyond Broadband Access: What Do We Need to Measure and How Do We Measure It?
    • 2. Understanding Digital Gaps: A Quartet of Empirical Methodologies
    • 3. Broadband Microfoundations: The Need for Traffic Data
    • 4. Adoption Factors of Ubiquitous Broadband
    • 5. Data and Modeling Challenges in International Comparisons
    • 6. Data, Policy, and Democracy
    • 7. “Rulers of thousands, hundreds, fifties, and tens”: Does Democracy Count?
  • PART II: THE USE AND ABUSE OF DATA IN INFORMATION POLICY MAKING
    • 8. PhD Heal Thyself: In Search of Evidence-based Research for Evidence-based Policy
    • 9. Case Studies in Results-Driven Decision Making at the FCC
    • 10. The Determinants of Disconnectedness: Understanding US Broadband Unavailability
    • 11. European Broadband Spending: Implications of Input-Output Analysis and Opportunity Costs
    • 12. Using Data for Policy Development: Designing a Universal Service Fund for Tanzania
  • Notes
  • Bibliography
  • List of Contributors
  • Index
    • A
    • B
    • C
    • D
    • E
    • F
    • G
    • H
    • I
    • J
    • K
    • L
    • M
    • N
    • O
    • P
    • Q
    • R
    • S
    • T
    • U
    • V
    • W
    • X
    • Y
    • Z