Broadband Data Forensics: Spatiotemporal Variations of the Download/Upload Speed Metric Commonly Used to Evaluate Potential Telehealth Accessibility

Introduction: The complicated task of evaluating potential telehealth access begins with the metrics and supporting datasets that seek toevaluate the presence and durability of broadband connections in a community. Broadband download/upload speeds are one of the popular metrics used to measure potential telehealth access, which is critical to health equity. An understanding of the limitations of these measures is important for drawing conclusions about the reality of the digital divide in telehealth access. The objective of this study was to assess spatiotemporal variations in broadband download/upload speeds.Method: We analyzed a sample of data from the Speedtest Intelligence Portal provided through the Ookla for Good initiative.Results: We found that variation is inherent across the states of Vermont, New Hampshire, Louisiana, and Utah.Conclusions: The variation suggests that when single measures of download/upload speeds are used to evaluate telehealth accessibility they may be masking the true magnitude of the digital divide.

Automated summary

This study assesses the spatiotemporal variations in broadband download/upload speeds and finds inherent differences across different states. This suggests that using single speed metrics to evaluate telehealth accessibility may mask the true magnitude of the digital divide.