Americans Highly Satisfied With Broadband Service
Recent polling by Morning Consult shows that Americans are overwhelmingly satisfied with their home internet service and are confident that broadband providers will continue to improve their networks to meet future needs. Consumers also favor targeted solutions to closing the remaining broadband gaps including dedicating government funding first to areas without any broadband service and permanently funding a subsidy to help low-income Americans purchase broadband service.
Cable Operators Begin to Roll Out Emergency Broadband Benefit
This past year has underscored the importance of broadband in the home more than ever before. During the COVID-19 pandemic, broadband connectivity has allowed millions of Americans to work and learn from home, to attend telehealth appointments, to connect with loved ones, and to continue a semblance of their pre-pandemic lives online. In recognition of this necessity and in response to the pandemic, Congress has provided the Federal Communications Commission with $3.2 billion to implement the Emergency Broadband Benefit (EBB) program. Beginning today, the EBB gives Americans who meet certain
Setting the Record Straight About Broadband Pricing
Some advocacy groups, like The Open Technology Institute (OTI), are repeating the assertion that prices for broadband service in the U.S. are significantly higher than in Europe and other countries around the world. That is just not true. And misinformation is not helpful to the critical discussion of how to get everyone in America connected. The statements that advocates often make don’t hold up when the cherry-picked data is subjected to closer scrutiny. No amount of repetition or volume changes these false claims. The OTI report has been soundly debunked (more than once) including in a new
Recognizing the Importance of School Partnerships During Teacher Appreciation Week
When the COVID-19 pandemic sent students home from school, many educators were forced to move their classes entirely online. This shift to distance learning was a significant endeavor, especially as some students did not have internet access at home. In honor of Teacher Appreciation Week, NCTA celebrates the educators who rose to meet these new challenges. Teachers have gone to great lengths to continue the learning process online. As distance learning plans evolved, educators and broadband providers across the country collaborated to connect students and families in need. These partnerships
As Upstream Consumption Increases, Cable Networks Are Ready
With millions of people working and learning from home (via the internet) last year due to the COVID-19 pandemic, America witnessed its biggest ever surge in internet traffic with spikes of 60% in some markets. Since last March, NCTA has tracked and published data showing how online usage has changed during the pandemic and how cable’s broadband networks have risen to the challenge of these traffic spikes. Not surprisingly, a new study by OpenVault found that upstream traffic consumption hit an all-time record in 2020, increasing by 63% between December 2019 to December 2020. This growth rate
A D.C. Resident Shares How the Internet Changed Her Life
Since LaJoy Johnson-Law gained access to the internet in her home last year, life has completely changed for her and her 8-year-old daughter, Abria. A resident of southeast Washington, D.C., Johnson-Law is one of 14 million people who have been connected to broadband internet through the cable industry's broadband adoption programs over the past decade. While Johnson-Law, like many other Americans, was able to make due without the internet for many years by either using the internet at a neighbor's home every once in a while or her phone’s hotspot, everything changed when COVID-19 hit the
More Energy Savings Coming to Pay-TV Equipment
Today is Earth Day, and the timing could not have worked out better to celebrate and recognize a hugely successful energy efficiency program that has already saved consumers $7 billion in energy costs. The program is the award-winning, "Voluntary Agreement for Ongoing Improvement to the Energy Efficiency of Set-Top Boxes," between all of the major cable, satellite and telco multichannel video programming distributors, manufacturers of set-top boxes, and leading energy efficiency advocates the Natural Resources Defense Council (NRDC) and American Council for an Energy-Efficient Economy (ACEEE)
Much of America’s Infrastructure is Crumbling; Broadband is the Exception
The topic of improving our national infrastructure is once again front and center in Washington. For years, the American Society of Civil Engineers (ASCE) has been urging policymakers to reinvest in things like waterways, bridges, energy grids, and roads. In fact, ASCE reports that 43% of America's public roadways are in poor or mediocre condition, more than 230,000 U.S. bridges require repair and preservation work, and there is a water main break every two minutes, causing an estimated six billion gallons of treated water to be lost each day. Another “newer” form of infrastructure is the
New Report Finds Network Performance During COVID-19 Was a Success
A new report by the expert Broadband Internet Technical Advisory Group (BITAG), a multi-stakeholder organization composed of engineers and technologists from various sectors across the internet ecosystem, highlights how the internet rose to the challenge of huge traffic surges during the pandemic and continues to perform well as millions of Americans continue to learn and work from home. The report, "2020 Pandemic Network Performance," co-edited by NCTA Vice President of Broadband Technology Matt Tooley and DISH Network Senior Engineering Program Manager Kate Landow, examines from a holistic
Award-Winning, Energy-Saving Set-Top Box Voluntary Agreement Renewed Through 2025
Arlington, VA – Today, the Consumer Technology Association (CTA) and NCTA – The Internet & Television Association (NCTA) announced an extension through 2025 of the award-winning Voluntary Agreement for Ongoing Improvement to the Energy Efficiency of Set-Top Boxes.The agreement, which has already saved consumers $7 billion in energy costs and avoided 39 million metric tons of CO2 emissions through the end of 2019, will now include new, even more rigorous energy-efficiency commitments starting in 2023. By the end of the extended terms of the agreement, the total energy used by set-top boxes in