Study Category: Changes in Access to Communications Technology Over the Past Ten Years

While 10 years ago there was a high level of concern related to information security, sale of personal information, invasion of privacy, and similar issues, it now is an overwhelming concern and one that people want their local governments to pay attention to (see Finding 4.3 and 4.6 for data and discussion on this topic).  The one caveat, is that populations that have a large distrust of government overall, also do not trust them to intervene positively in these arenas, but rather are concerned about the government themselves invading their privacy.

Local government continues to be the main regulator for use of the public right-of-way and residents continue to want to ensure that public safety is maintained and that aesthetics are maintained (see Finding 4.5 for data and discussion on this topic). 

Additionally, the need remains high for local governments to continue to be an effective force in consumer protection related to cable service because the local government (through the MHCRC) is the only level of government that directly assists cable customers with complaint resolution; tracks complaint trends and data to identify issues for further enforcement or legal action when necessary; and enforces local customer service standards.  While there have been some strides in increasing positive ratings of customer service characteristics, it is not at the level of the most highly regarded service providers.

As it did 10 years ago, the MHCRC continues to have a critical oversight role in monitoring the cable companies’ customer service response, and advocating for consumers when they have not been able to resolve complaints directly with the company. The fact that these complaints have dropped in 2019 from prior years (based on MHCRC annual complaint reports), which is consistent with the industry as a whole achieving a higher ACSI rating, indicates that this active oversight role is having an impact on improving customer service.

Specifically, cable TV subscription in Multnomah County has dropped over 28% in just the last 5 years,  while broadband and access to  Internet at home, based on the Scientific Survey, has increased by about 10% of the overall population in the last 10 years. Differing from 10 years ago, cable TV is more expensive but also has a higher number of services, and broadband access to the Internet has much greater capacity. National data and this Study indicates that broadband, for those where it is available and who can afford it, reaches a diverse population, while cable TV tends to skew older with some adjustments age-wise based on households with parents and children, younger households that are heavily into sports (because there’s more sports coverage on cable TV than there is through any other means), and some lower socioeconomic households where cable TV can continue to provide a beneficial price/value comparison versus other forms of entertainment.

The content produced at the community media centers now is much more than the 30-minute or hour-long video shows, which was the predominant type of content a decade ago. It is increasingly short form video that can be distributed across multiple platforms. 

Ten years ago, most video content producers who used the community media centers did so because they relied on the center for all their video production needs. However, the capabilities of DSLR cameras (Digital Single Lens Reflex – used for both high resolution photography and videography) and smartphones, especially for beginning video producers due to the ease of use while maintaining high quality video production, have enabled many to produce  video programs without using an organizations’ resources. However, access to higher capability devices, including professional type HD4K cameras, as well as editing equipment and software with much higher capabilities and new technology are still in high demand and being used at both community media centers.

See additional data in Finding 5.4 related to media literacy training provided by both Open Signal and MetroEast concerning use of both producers’ personal devices, as well as the equipment available at the centers.

Esper House notes that “all target communities described increased community engagement through social media and media production over the past ten years” using their own personal devices.

Ten years ago, Digital Equity had not yet come into focus as a need for a healthy community in our digital-age society. However, since that time, the community media centers have partnered with many groups that serve diverse populations in the community, focusing on a progression from basic to more sophisticated education around digital and multimedia literacy, and are enabling distribution of community media produced both outside and inside the facility.

Interactive content is also at a much higher level than it was 10 years ago, including a number of social media services that now have interactive video components.

Additionally, the business community is more focused on video and graphic communications, knowing that this is the primary way that all populations receive news and information. The City of Gresham notes for example, for small businesses, videos are becoming more important and as such, they need to be fluent in multimedia literacy in order to provide effective outreach.

Finally, the COVID-19 pandemic has certainly changed the way everyone is creating and delivering content, because of the stay-at-home order, to meet the need for continual contact with families and friends, coworkers, employers, and others. Accordingly, video conferencing and video chat systems have seen a huge increase in use in the last several months and are forecast to continue at a high level even after the COVID-19 pandemic subsides.

As noted in the 2010 Report, the “long tail” of media delivery was already long and is getting longer. The “long tail” is a characterization developed in the mid-2000’s to describe the need to continue to provide information through multiple traditional media, as well as new media, in order to reach all the population. Essentially this means people are accessing content in every way from traditional print materials to 280-character tweets and other forms of social media, video communications, and augmented reality; and those methods, most likely, won’t go away as new and different technologies continue to come onboard to access and deliver content.

Sectors and Stakeholders noted in the Findings under Key Question #1 a substantial amount of content access is on smartphones, and most of it through apps. For example, the City of Gresham representatives indicated that information from a survey they conducted showed that 80% of their residents access the content the City provides on their smartphones. This is partly driven by the ease of use, the relatively affordable device and data plan (vs. a laptop and wireline broadband connection), apps continuing to expand in diversity and capability, and the high degree of capability for voice, video and data communications.

Streaming video (the number of services, the types of video that can be accessed and its optimization for multiple types of devices) has vastly increased in the last ten years. More than three quarters of cable television subscribers also have a streaming service in addition to their cable television service.

While community media viewership, like all the channels on the cable system, is down in  from ten years ago, (this is largely due to more channels available on the system, as well as more video outlets that, while they may not be on the cable system, are now available through a Smart TV and Smart Remote at the same monitoring location), in comparison to other channels, they are still highly viewed. This likely goes to the hyperlocal nature of the content. In the Qualitative Public Survey, community, and neighborhood news, is the highest desired type of local community access channel programming.

Table 13: Community Access Channel Viewership Comparison over 10 Years

Websites are still highly used but their mobile versions have become more important over the past ten years (again because of the preponderance of apps, increase in smartphone use, and the need for cost-effective portability).

Virtual reality/augmented reality/X-reality has risen substantially over the last 10 years, for everything from entertainment to gaming to provision of information in a “you are there” fashion,

as well as A.I.. A.I. has taken substantial leaps in recent years.

For example, the I-Net has more sites connected and the available bandwidth and utilization has increased. Data communications with higher capacity requirements, such as geospatial files, video communications, and “big pipe” aggregated access to the Internet, have been the primary contributors to the need for higher network capacity on the I-Net for public agencies. Additionally, capacity for growth has been built into today’s networks, for increased video communications (e.g., video monitoring and surveillance, internal and external video communications, aggregating video from squad cars, fire apparatus, body cams, etc., for public safety purposes, etc.);a host of new “big data” applications to ultimately provide as open data for residential and business use (including 3D modeling, 360-video and other graphic intensive data); and Smart Cities applications driven by A.I.. Although a lot of Smart Cities applications are based on low capacity monitoring, control and telemetry types of data communications, the wealth of them added together will continue to push the need for higher bandwidth on public agency networks.

The demand on capacity for public WiFi has increased over the last 10 years which has pushed the need for, even if its segmented or partitioned on a public agency network, higher overall bandwidth, including higher overall back-haul and higher per site connection bandwidth. 

Regarding private networks, consumer demand has escalated exponentially over the last 10 years. Some of the technologies facilitating today’s private networks, include new cellular broadband technologies through 5G (Fifth generation or Next Gen), higher capability portable computing devices (many smartphones today have more computing capacity than some desktops did ten years ago), and an increased level of sophistication in miniaturization of communications technology components as well as in all types of applications and ancillary devices (such as health monitoring devices and applications) that work in tandem with the smartphone. Paraphrasing one technology analyst, “there will never be enough bandwidth, but there will always be a push to develop more”.