Benefits of Broadband

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PHOENIX CENTER POLICY PERSPECTIVE No. 26-02:
George S. Ford, Are Broadband Prices Rising? The Perils of Naive Price Comparisons (February 23, 2026).
[pdf] [press release]

PHOENIX CENTER POLICY PERSPECTIVE No. 26-01:
George S. Ford, Measuring Broadband at the FCC: A Peculiar Approach (February 19, 2026).
[pdf] [press release]

@lawandeconomics IN BRIEF No. 25-02:
George S. Ford, Adoption Subsidies and the Digital Divide (June 11, 2025).
[pdf] [press release]

PHOENIX CENTER POLICY PERSPECTIVE No. 25-01:
George S. Ford, Refocusing the FCC's Section 706 Reports (April 2, 2025).
[pdf] [press release]

George S. Ford, Economic Benefits of Fiber Deployment: A Review of The Brattle Group Study, PHOENIX CENTER POLICY BULLETIN No. 73 (March 2025).
[pdf] [press release]

Phoenix Center Comments to the National Telecommunications and Information Administration on Proposed BEAD Alternative Technology Guidance (September 10, 2024). 
[pdf]

PHOENIX CENTER POLICY PERSPECTIVE No. 24-03:
George S. Ford, What Are the Effects of Changing the Definition of Broadband? (March 21, 2024).
[pdf] [press release]

PHOENIX CENTER POLICY PERSPECTIVE No. 24-02:
George S. Ford, Broadband Inequality in the Era of Subsidies (March 19, 2024).
[pdf] [press release]

HOENIX CENTER POLICY PERSPECTIVE No. 23-04:
George S. Ford, Will Digital Discrimination Policies End Discount Plans for Low-Income Consumers? (November 1, 2023).
[pdf] [press release]

PHOENIX CENTER POLICY PERSPECTIVE No. 23-03:
George S. Ford, Digital Discrimination and Broadband Subsidies: Which Matters? (October 31, 2023).
[pdf] [press release]

George S. Ford and Lawrence J. Spiwak, Digital Discrimination Under Disparate Impact: A Legal and Economic Analysis, PHOENIX CENTER POLICY PAPER No. 61 (October 2023).
[pdf] [press release]

George S. Ford, The Broadband Tribal Gap: An Empirical Evaluation, PHOENIX CENTER POLICY BULLETIN No. 62 (November 2022).
[pdf] [press release]

George S. Ford, Middle-Class Affordability of Broadband:  An Empirical Look at the Threshold Question, PHOENIX CENTER POLICY BULLETIN No. 61 (October 2022).
[pdf] [press release]

PHOENIX CENTER POLICY PERSPECTIVE No. 22-05:
George S. Ford, Speed-Tests:  Substitute for, or Complement to, Broadband Maps? (September 20, 2022).
[pdf] [press release]

PHOENIX CENTER POLICY PERSPECTIVE No. 22-04:
George S. Ford, Overstating Broadband Availability:  An Assessment of the “All-In” Assumption for FCC 477 Data (September 14, 2022).
[pdf] [press release]

T. Randolph Beard and George S. Ford, Digital Discrimination:  Fiber Availability and Speeds by Race and Income, PHOENIX CENTER POLICY PAPER No. 58 (September 2022).
[pdf] [press release]

PHOENIX CENTER POLICY PERSPECTIVE No. 22-03:
George S. Ford, Challenges to Universal Adoption: A Look at NTIA's New Data (June 9, 2022).
[pdf] [press release]

George S. Ford, A Comparative Analysis of Mobile Wireless Broadband Speeds in Cities Across the World, PHOENIX CENTER POLICY BULLETIN No. 56 (March 2022).
[pdf] [press release]

George S. Ford, A Comparative Analysis of Fixed Broadband Speeds in Cities Across the World, PHOENIX CENTER POLICY BULLETIN No. 54 (February 2022).
[pdf] [press release]

PHOENIX CENTER POLICY PERSPECTIVE No. 22-01:
George S. Ford, EBB, Lifeline, and ACP: Some Guidance (January 13, 2022).
[pdf] [press release]

PHOENIX CENTER POLICY PERSPECTIVE No. 21-05:
George S. Ford, A Quality Check on Form 477 Data:  Errors, Subsidies, and Econometrics (October 27, 2021).
[pdf] [press release]

PHOENIX CENTER POLICY PERSPECTIVE No. 21-04:
George S. Ford, Assessing Broadband Policy Options:  Empirical Evidence on Two Relationships of Primary Interest (July 28, 2021).
[pdf] [press release]

George S. Ford, Race and Broadband Adoption:  A Decomposition Analysis, PHOENIX CENTER POLICY BULLETIN No. 52 (May 2021).
[pdf] [press release]

George S. Ford, Confusing Relevance And Price: Interpreting And Improving Surveys On Internet Non-Adoption, 45 Telecommunications Policy (March 2021). 
[url]

PHOENIX CENTER POLICY PERSPECTIVE No. 21-03:
George S. Ford, Form 477, Speed-Tests, and the American Broadband User’s Experience (March 31, 2021).
[pdf] [press release]

George S. Ford, Subsidies and Substitution: An Empirical Study Of The Lifeline Program, 45 Telecommunications Policy (February 2021).
[url]

PHOENIX CENTER POLICY PERSPECTIVE No. 20-07:
George S. Ford, Are Broadband Prices Declining? A Look at the FCC’s Price Survey Data (October 26, 2020).
[pdf] [press release]

George S. Ford, Getting Broadband Subsidies Right This Time, Federalist Society Blog (July 8, 2020).
[url]

PHOENIX CENTER POLICY PERSPECTIVE No. 20-05:
George S. Ford, Subsidizing Broadband: Price, Relevance, and the Digital Divide (July 7, 2020).
[pdf] [press release]

PHOENIX CENTER POLICY PERSPECTIVE No. 20-04:
George S. Ford, Trends in Lifeline Reform: A Look at the Evidence, Not the Politics (July 1, 2020).
[pdf] [press release]

T. Randolph Beard, George S. Ford and Michael Stern, Bridging the Digital Divide: What Has Not Worked But What Just Might, PHOENIX CENTER POLICY PAPER No. 56 (June 2020).
[pdf] [press release]

George S. Ford, COVID-19 and Broadband Speeds: A Multi-Country Analysis, PHOENIX CENTER POLICY BULLETIN No. 49 (May 2020).
[pdf] [press release]

George S. Ford, “Relevance” and “Price” as Determinants of Internet Non-Adoption: A Review of the Evidence, PHOENIX CENTER POLICY BULLETIN No. 48 (April 2020).
[pdf] [press release]

George S. Ford, Proposed Reforms to FCC’s Lifeline Program Require A Bit More Thought, Federalist Society Blog (July 22, 2019).
[url]

George S. Ford, A Fresh Look at the Lifeline Program, PHOENIX CENTER POLICY PAPER No. 55 (July 2019).
[pdf] [press release]

PHOENIX CENTER POLICY PERSPECTIVE No. 19-03:
George S. Ford, Quantifying the Overstatement in Broadband Availability from the Form 477 Data: An Econometric Approach (July 11, 2019).
[pdf] [press release]

PHOENIX CENTER POLICY PERSPECTIVE No. 19-02:
George S. Ford, Broadband as a Source of Rural Decline: A Look at the Data (June 13, 2019).
[pdf] [press release]

PHOENIX CENTER POLICY PERSPECTIVE No. 18-07:
George S. Ford, Rhetoric Aside: What the Data Actually Say About Broadband Deployment (September 4, 2018).
[pdf] [press release]

George S. Ford, Is Faster Better? Quantifying the Relationship between Broadband Speed and Economic Growth, PHOENIX CENTER POLICY BULLETIN No. 44 (February 2018).
[pdf] [press release]

T. Randolph Beard, George S. Ford and Michael Stern, Private Solutions to Broadband Adoption:  An Economic Analysis, PHOENIX CENTER POLICY BULLETIN No. 38 (September 2016).
[pdf] [press release]

PHOENIX CENTER POLICY PERSPECTIVE No. 13-02:
George S. Ford, Revisiting Internet Use and Depression Among the Elderly (June 7, 2013).
[pdf] [press release]

PHOENIX CENTER POLICY PERSPECTIVE No. 11-05:
George S. Ford, Mobile Broadband and Job Search: An Empirical Test (September 6, 2011).
[pdf] [press release]

PHOENIX CENTER POLICY PERSPECTIVE No. 11-04:
George S. Ford, Internet Use and Labor Market Participation:  Additional Insights from New and Old Data (August 18, 2011).
[pdf] [press release]

T. Randolph Beard, George S. Ford, Hyeongwoo Kim, Jobs, Jobs, Jobs:  Communications Policy and Employment Effects in the Information Sector, PHOENIX CENTER POLICY BULLETIN No. 25 (October 2010).
[pdf] [Press Release]

PHOENIX CENTER PERSPECTIVE No. 10-01:
George S. Ford, Internet Use and Job Search: More Evidence
(January 26, 2010).
[pdf file]

T. Randolph Beard, George S. Ford and Richard P. Saba, Internet Use and Job Search, PHOENIX CENTER POLICY
PAPER No. 39 (January 2010).
[pdf] [Press Release]

George S. Ford and Sherry G. Ford, Internet Use and Depression Among the Elderly, PHOENIX CENTER POLICY
PAPER No. 38 (October 2009).
[pdf file] [Press Release]