🖥 Find where broadband access will close the digital divide and boost local economies

Mapping connections between broadband expansion and equitable economic prosperity

It is clear that access to quality broadband internet is more important than ever for individual economic opportunity and regional economic development. But where can investments in broadband access do the most to close digital divides and boost prosperity? That was the question posed by US Ignite.

No comprehensive research has connected measures of broadband availability and performance with economic success, so our research team’s first task was to collect the disparate data sources on internet speed, availability, use, and cost; scale these data to a common, fine-grained geographic level (Census Tract); and join them into a single, composite score.

In this data, we identified locations with statistically lower actual broadband use than would be expected from neighboring locations. These pockets of low broadband connectivity could be ares to focus on improving individual access to existing infrastructure (e.g. subsidizing monthly subscriptions, increasing digital literacy, or providing necessary hardware).

We analyzed broadband performance and economic indicators over time to find evidence of broadband boosting economic growth and to test the equity of broadband access.

We found that there is a delayed correlation between an increase in broadband access and economic improvement: that is, past broadband expansion correlates with subsequent economic growth, particularly in locations that had a certain base level of economic performance. While this does not fully demonstrate that the broadband expansion caused economic growth, the positive, lagged relationship is encouraging and matches expectations.

We further identified the demographic and economic factors which correspond to lower broadband access, as measures of current digital divides and to equitable prioritize expansion. We also found the factors that were common in the places which did see a boost in prosperity following broadband expansion.

By combining both these considerations we located the places that could achieve the most equitable and greatest absolute gains from broadband expansion.

To further explore and draw local insights from this research, I built an interactive map that highlights economic scores, broadband indicators, and particular areas of unexpectedly low broadband use (which could be areas to improve access to existing infrastructure).

Skills

rescaling and downscaling spatial data
big data management
feature engineering/dimensionality reduction (principal component analysis)
machine learning (clustering)
web map visualization (with Carto)
spatial database (Carto)