About
The Virginia Joint Commission on Technology and Science in collaboration with researchers at the University of California, Santa Barbara (UCSB) and University of California, Berkeley used the Broadband‑Plan Query Tool (BQT), an automated system that simulates how consumers search for internet plans online, to evaluate broadband affordability and plan accessibility across Virginia. Drawing on 62,000 address‑level samples across roughly 900 census block groups in ten diverse localities, the team compared wired and fixed wireless offerings from ten major ISPs. The study’s distribution of affordability closely mirrors the Commonwealth overall, supporting statewide generalization. Through The Bright Initiative, the team leveraged Bright Data’s web data infrastructure to scale compliant collection of public plan, price, speed, and availability information at the address level.
Challenge
Capturing accurate, comparable broadband plan information at scale is technically complex.
The team needed to:
- Simulate real consumer journeys across thousands of Virginia addresses and devices in urban and rural markets.
- Surface low‑cost and introductory plans that were hard to find or required phone calls.
- Compare wired and fixed wireless tiers, speeds, and effective prices in competitive and non‑competitive areas.
- Build a repeatable, longitudinal methodology to inform policy over time.
Supported by The Bright Initiative, the researchers used Bright Data’s extensive proxy network for their data collection. This enabled the BQT to reliably render dynamic plan pages, capture publicly available options (including affordable tiers), and standardize data across providers and locations, without disrupting providers’ services or accessing non‑public information.
Impact
The analysis provides a clear, actionable affordability benchmark and evidence to guide Virginia’s broadband policy:
- Affordability standard: Using a 2% income threshold at the 20th percentile of disposable income, $30/month is affordable for roughly 93% of Virginians—aligning with the Affordable Connectivity Program (ACP) benchmark. At $50/month, about half of households face unaffordable plans.
- Policy target: A regulated $30/month price for a basic 100 Mbps plan would create a simple, equitable statewide standard. Some communities may still need local bridge subsidies to reach full affordability.
These findings, made possible at scale with Bright Data’s web data collection capabilities, equip state and local leaders with defensible evidence to:
- Mandate visibility and accessibility for low‑cost plans on ISP websites (including mobile‑responsive design).
- Set a statewide 100 Mbps for $30/month basic offering.
- Deploy targeted tax credits or bridge programs where residual gaps persist.
- Fund independent, longitudinal plan/price/speed measurements using tools like the BQT.
For more on how the Virginia Joint Commission on Technology and Science is making an impact, read their full report here.
