A new report (Wired and working? An evaluation of broadband expansion in Rural America) has come out on the impact of CAF on rural communities…

This paper addresses this [rural broadband] gap by evaluating the Connect America Fund (CAF), one of the largest federal broadband programs. CAF provided an unprecedented scale of financial incentives for broadband deployment to companies offering services in unserved or underserved rural areas across the United States. In theory, this support would allow eligible carriers to recover some of their costs and provide services that would otherwise remain unavailable. As a result of CAF, we expect both increased broadband access and expanded economic opportunities enabled by the expanded access. CAF operated until 2020, after which it was replaced by an even larger program: the Rural Digital Opportunity Fund. …

Our results suggest that broadband deployment positively affected employment, both in total levels and as a share of the labor force, and increased median household income in the benefited areas. These effects generally strengthened over time, particularly during the pandemic, with earlier-treated areas experiencing the largest gains. Distinctly, we do not find consistent evidence of impacts on self-employment. Our findings offer new insights into how large-scale infrastructure investments can shape local labor markets.