TPRC 2024: The 52nd Research Conference on Communications, Information and Inter

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Abstract:
The FCC Broadband Data Collection (BDC) program has had—and will continue to have—tremendous impact on directing policy interventions and funding towards the goal of achieving broadband equity, access, and deployment across the United States.
In this paper, we share our experience analyzing the data disseminated by the FCC as part of this program.
We focus on discussing the challenges and limitations that one may encounter when exploring the datasets made publicly available as part of this program.
Examples are the lack of direct, public data on the fabric layer; the retroactive removal of availability records from past data releases; and the purely file-based data serving model.
We provide recommendations to stakeholders on ways to overcome these challenges and cope with limitations.
These recommendations seek to introduce best practices for processing and analyzing the BDC data.
Where appropriate, we also bring suggestions to the FCC on approaches to eliminate data limitations and lower barriers to analysis.
These suggestions involve changes to how BDC data is published, served, updated, and summarized by the FCC.

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Abstract:
This paper presents initial research to contribute to the discussion surrounding broadband access data. In this paper, an approach to quantifying community behaviors across critical demographics for broadband mapping is explored and a research roadmap presented. Ultimately, the goal of this research is to offer a recommendation for improvement of the U.S. federal broadband map data process to establish the best holistic representation of broadband access for public policy research and decision making. The paper explores two initial research questions. First, how have community behavior and requirements data been collected and considered in U.S. broadband development initiatives, subsidies, and policies? Second, how have community behaviors been quantified in previous policy research? Finally, this paper presents a research roadmap on how to identify and apply community behavior data to the National Broadband Map for effective policy decisions.

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Abstract:
The South Korea telecom services market reports annual revenues of $32 billion. The country is noted for market-based network usage fees in which content providers (both domestic and foreign) negotiate access to broadband networks. The magnitude and volume of such fees are not public, but news reports suggest they amount to less than 1 percent of the total market revenue. This paper investigates the size and volume of the network usage fee regime and impacts on related broadband and content markets. 

As usage fees have been place for some years in Korea, this paper reviews the development of the Korean broadband and content markets and whether changes can be observed after the introduction of usage fees to the industry structure, revenue, market size, concentration, penetration, technological development, and other variables. International comparisons are offered to see whether there are statistically significant differences in countries without formal usage fee regimes. 

Results are expected to be correlative, not causative. Theoretical modeling is explored in parallel to explore whether and how results could change under different circumstances.

A conceptual framework suggests expected relationship between variables and defines objectives for the research process. In this respect, the authors hypothesize that network usage fees have a neutral effect on the market, or at best positive. Alternative scenarios are explored, for example the refusal to supply by content providers and the lack of reinvestment of fees into the network. 

The paper explores other reasons why the Korean regime may be an appropriate model or not, for example, the discrete number of broadband providers, the presence of an authority to meter and publicize traffic levels, the ease of measurement of international traffic because of limited entry points to the country, policy orientation towards technological innovation, and so on. 

The paper is relevant for at least 4 themes promoted at TPRC52 including
• Broadband Deployment, Access and the Digital Divide, Criticality of Infrastructure
• Social Dimensions to Communications and Internet Policy
• Policies Governing the Digital Economy
• Geopolitics, Digital Sovereignty, and Tech Regulation.
Moreover, it offers new, original, and valuable data and analysis for policy scholars including a bibliography of Korean sources of information on usage fees translated and summarized for an English-speaking audience, a formal presentation of Korean content market development over the last decade and reference to international proceedings on the similar topic in other countries as appropriate. 

The paper offers a timely review of the small but emerging literature on the topic of network usage fees and interconnection and the significant literature in Korean on the nation’s broadband policy, which is not necessarily accessed by English language scholars. 
The work is significant because many nations consider whether and how to engage in such regimes and whether market-based or regulated approaches are superior. Proceedings have been undertaken or underway in USA, European Union, Brazil, among other regions.