The California Emerging Technology Fund (CETF) and the University of Southern California are jointly administering the Statewide Survey on Broadband Adoption, the latter said via news release Monday, to “determine progress toward full broadband access.” Among the takeaways:
- CETF, which was created by the California Public Utilities Commission more than a decade ago, has long examined broadband adoption in California via statewide survey, part of its general responsibility to expand the use and availability of high-speed Internet. But this survey, CETF President Sunne Wright McPeak told Techwire, is believed to be the first of its kind in the nation to look at how broadband will play a role in people’s lives post-pandemic. The survey will examine “who lacks access to devices and high-speed Internet, including inequities across ethnic and income groups, and how characteristics of the digital divide have shifted since the last survey in 2019,” according to USC. Its cost of nearly $192,000 will be paid by CETF.
“Nobody in the country has done this kind of surveying post-pandemic as the signs look like there will be the vaccination of a sufficient amount of the population that there is going to be, sometime this year, a lifting of all the shelter-in-place orders,” McPeak said. “And we’re getting insight that we never could have gotten by people thinking about the hypothetical. They’ve now been through this real-life experience and can provide both feedback and their expectations of what life will be in the future.” - The study, said Hernan Galperin, associate professor of communication at the USC Annenberg School for Communication and Journalism — and leader of the research — will highlight the state’s progress in closing the digital divide “in the context of a pandemic that has made broadband more essential than ever.” The result, Galperin told Techwire via email, will be “unique” in its focus and reveal the work that still remains to fully connect the state — especially low-income and rural residents.
“For these populations the role of state and local governments is likely to be key, given that returns are likely to be too thin to promote market entry by private ISPs (Internet service providers) alone,” Galperin said. The previous survey, McPeak said, was cited in the state’s new Broadband Action Plan 2020, commissioned by a governor’s executive order last year. With that in mind, she said, “I expect it’s going to be very highly relied upon when we release the results. I do think and hope it will drive policy and that should inform the procurement and vendor relationship.” - The survey, which is being made available in five languages and done 80 percent via cellphone, will connect with 1,650 adults statewide. It began Feb. 10 and should yield its first results next week.
