{"675159":{"#nid":"675159","#data":{"type":"news","title":"New Research Shows that Improving Mobile Internet Service Can Reduce Digital Inequality","body":[{"value":"\u003Cp\u003EOver 90% of the U.S. population has internet access.\u0026nbsp;\u003C\/p\u003E\u003Cp\u003EHowever, many households, particularly those of low socioeconomic status, are \u201csmartphone-dependent,\u201d meaning they rely purely on their smartphone for internet access. As a result, their connection may be unstable or slow, and they may be constrained by data caps that limit how much they can use the internet. This puts them at a disadvantage compared to households with internet access through smartphones and\u0026nbsp;other broadband connections at home and work, perpetuating digital inequality between disadvantaged and advantaged households.\u0026nbsp;\u003C\/p\u003E\u003Cp\u003EThe smartphone dependence of many disadvantaged households begs the question: If mobile internet service was better \u2013 e.g. if it was faster, more reliable, and\/or didn\u2019t come with data constraints \u2013 could that reduce digital inequality and level the playing field? Researchers from the Georgia Tech Scheller College of Business and Southern Methodist University Cox School of Business studied this question and found the answer is \u201cyes.\u201d\u003C\/p\u003E\u003Cp\u003E\u003Ca href=\u0022https:\/\/www.smu.edu\/cox\/our-people-and-community\/faculty\/karthik-babu-nattamai-kannan\u0022\u003EKarthik Kannan\u003C\/a\u003E, assistant professor of IT and Operations Management at the Cox School of Business and Georgia Tech Ph.D. graduate, led the project. \u201cI was interested in the effect of data caps. For example, when you have 10GB of data per month and use more, you are charged extra, or your connection is throttled,\u201d said Kannan. \u201cSo, I partnered with a large telecommunications provider to study what happens when their subscribers switched from capped to unlimited data plans. I was particularly interested in differences between high-income and low-income households.\u201d\u003C\/p\u003E\u003Cp\u003EKannan, along with\u0026nbsp;\u003Ca href=\u0022https:\/\/www.scheller.gatech.edu\/directory\/faculty\/overby\/index.html\u0022\u003EEric Overby\u003C\/a\u003E, Catherine and Edwin Wahlen Professor of Information Technology Management, and\u0026nbsp;\u003Ca href=\u0022https:\/\/www.scheller.gatech.edu\/directory\/faculty\/narasimhan\/index.html\u0022\u003ESri Narasimhan\u003C\/a\u003E, Gregory J. Owens Professor of Information Technology Management,\u0026nbsp;at the Scheller College of Business, found that while all households increased their data use after switching to an unlimited plan, the increase was significantly larger for families of low socioeconomic status.\u003C\/p\u003E\u003Cp\u003E\u201cThat was our initial finding: that improving mobile internet service by removing the data cap had disproportionately large benefits for disadvantaged households,\u201d said Overby. \u201cBut that didn\u2019t mean much in and of itself. If those households weren\u2019t using the additional data for \u2018enriching\u2019 purposes like accessing educational, health care, or career-related data, the additional data consumption wouldn\u2019t translate into positive social benefits. Indeed, years of research on digital inequality have consistently shown a \u2018usage gap\u2019 in which advantaged households take fuller advantage of internet access improvements than disadvantaged households. The result is that internet improvements often exacerbate inequality. So, we dug deeper.\u201d\u003C\/p\u003E\u003Cp\u003ESpecifically, the researchers leveraged the telecommunication provider\u2019s data categorization system to study changes in the consumption of educational data. They found that disadvantaged households experienced disproportionate increases in education data consumption (as well as in overall data consumption) after switching to unlimited mobile data. Although advantaged households increased their education data consumption by approximately 15MB (or about three digital textbooks) per month after switching to unlimited data, disadvantaged households increased their education data consumption by approximately 24MB (or about five digital textbooks) per month.\u003C\/p\u003E\u003Cp\u003E\u0026nbsp;\u201cWe can\u2019t be sure that these disproportionate increases in education data consumption will help disadvantaged households narrow gaps in educational outcomes. However, this is clearly a step in the right direction,\u201d said Kannan.\u0026nbsp;\u003C\/p\u003E\u003Cp\u003E\u0026nbsp;The research is directly relevant to the Federal Communications Commission\u2019s 2023 inquiry into the effects of data caps on disadvantaged households. Narasimhan explains, \u201cLet\u2019s say that based on their inquiry, the FCC decides to limit the use of data caps. A logical question is: will that do any good? In other words, will disadvantaged households take advantage of their improved mobile internet service in a way that can reduce digital inequality? Prior to our research, we didn\u2019t really know. But based on our research, the answer is yes.\u201d\u003C\/p\u003E\u003Cp\u003E\u0026nbsp;The research paper is forthcoming in \u003Cem\u003EManagement Science\u003C\/em\u003E and available at\u0026nbsp;\u003Ca href=\u0022https:\/\/papers.ssrn.com\/sol3\/papers.cfm?abstract_id=4173558\u0022\u003Ehttps:\/\/papers.ssrn.com\/sol3\/papers.cfm?abstract_id=4173558\u003C\/a\u003E.\u003C\/p\u003E","summary":"","format":"limited_html"}],"field_subtitle":"","field_summary":[{"value":"\u003Cp\u003ENew research shows removing data caps to cell phone usage may not only reduce digital\u0026nbsp;inequality but might increase education data consumption by disadvantaged populations.\u0026nbsp;\u003C\/p\u003E","format":"limited_html"}],"field_summary_sentence":[{"value":"Improving mobile internet service by removing the data cap has large benefits for disadvantaged households."}],"uid":"28082","created_gmt":"2024-06-20 14:51:43","changed_gmt":"2024-06-27 21:33:14","author":"Lorrie Burroughs","boilerplate_text":"","field_publication":"","field_article_url":"","dateline":{"date":"2024-06-20T00:00:00-04:00","iso_date":"2024-06-20T00:00:00-04:00","tz":"America\/New_York"},"extras":[],"hg_media":{"674215":{"id":"674215","type":"image","title":"Hands with cellphone","body":null,"created":"1718895726","gmt_created":"2024-06-20 15:02:06","changed":"1718896333","gmt_changed":"2024-06-20 15:12:13","alt":"hands holding a cell phone","file":{"fid":"257701","name":"pxfuel.com (1)_0.jpg","image_path":"\/sites\/default\/files\/2024\/06\/20\/pxfuel.com%20%281%29_0.jpg","image_full_path":"http:\/\/hg.gatech.edu\/\/sites\/default\/files\/2024\/06\/20\/pxfuel.com%20%281%29_0.jpg","mime":"image\/jpeg","size":1173831,"path_740":"http:\/\/hg.gatech.edu\/sites\/default\/files\/styles\/740xx_scale\/public\/2024\/06\/20\/pxfuel.com%20%281%29_0.jpg?itok=TKMZ6NEv"}}},"media_ids":["674215"],"groups":[{"id":"1188","name":"Research Horizons"},{"id":"1274","name":"Scheller College of Business"}],"categories":[{"id":"139","name":"Business"},{"id":"153","name":"Computer Science\/Information Technology and Security"},{"id":"131","name":"Economic Development and Policy"},{"id":"42911","name":"Education"},{"id":"135","name":"Research"}],"keywords":[{"id":"1293","name":"cell phone"},{"id":"9153","name":"Research Horizons"},{"id":"187915","name":"go-researchnews"}],"core_research_areas":[{"id":"39501","name":"People and Technology"}],"news_room_topics":[{"id":"71881","name":"Science and Technology"}],"event_categories":[],"invited_audience":[],"affiliations":[],"classification":[],"areas_of_expertise":[],"news_and_recent_appearances":[],"phone":[],"contact":[{"value":"\u003Cp\u003EEric Overby\u003C\/p\u003E","format":"limited_html"}],"email":[],"slides":[],"orientation":[],"userdata":""}}}